High School for the Certifiably Insane
by SW4G M4N
Summary: A Borderlands AU story. Lilith and her life-long friend are sentenced to a juvenile prison, run by the tyrant Handsome Jack. Follow her and the Crimson Raiders prison gang as they try to survive their time in the most dangerous prison in the galaxy. Has characters from Borderlands 1 and 2. The pairings are RolandxLilith, MordecaixMoxxi, and AxtonxMaya.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello readers! I was looking through the Borderlands fan fiction archive and realized it is sadly lacking, so I thought I'd give fanfic a shot myself. Feedback is always appreciated, but do be gentle, this is my first story. I have one OC in this story, but other then that I tried to stick to the already existing characters. So without further ado, my story!**

Chapter One: Their New Home

"All of you in the back wake up, it's a beautiful day full of opportunity!" yelled the bus driver as it pulled into the school drop of circle. The bus screeched to a halt, the unpleasant noise a testament to its old age and horrible condition. The doors swung open and out walked a teen with creamy white skin, dark red hair, and most noticeably, many strange blue tattoos that covered much of her body. The girl looked up at the school she had been sentenced to by her "loving" family. The school building looked more like a prison, with a large electric fence surrounding it and each window barred with steal rods. "Hey Lilith, what are ya standing there for, we gotta get moving!" said a strange boy with a scar running across his face and dark brown hair.

"Sorry Luke," Lilith responded "I was just checking out our new home for the next 6 years."

Luke chuckled "C'mon Lilith, it ain't so bad, with our past we'll fit right in!"

Just as he finished his sentence, a loud voice blared through the microphone. "This is your principle, Handsome Jack. I would like you all to know that with hard work and good moral you will be fixed and become ready to re-enter, aww who am I kidding, you little bastards are gonna be living in hell for your sentence. You aren't gonna change and you never will, but on behalf of the Hyperion Corporation we would like to thank you for the entertaining escape attempts. Honestly, it's fucking hilarious, just remember you're gonna be wanting to saver your money for the respawn machines, or else you're dead for good. As much as I'd like that I'm pretty sure my salary get's lowered every time one of you bitches gets offed. So with that I'd like to welcome you to Pandora Juvenile Correctional Facility, now get to class!" The loud speaker cut off with a static noise and the students started to run to class.

"Man, that guy sounds like a dick!" said Luke

Lilith nodded "He sounds just as insane as the rest of us"

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They found the door they were looking for, room 205. Lilith opened the door and saw an interesting crowd sitting in desks around the room. Many of them were armed to the teeth in weaponry and many of them had strange masks with what looked like an upside down V with a circle around it painted onto it. Luke, without hesitation, sat right down with a gorgeous girl with white make up and a large top hat. _He would, _thought Lilith as she looked around to try and find another open seat. The only seat left was next to a boy with dark colored skin who was sharpening a large bowie knife, something that did not make her entirely comfortable, but despite the scary look it was sitting next to him or a screaming midget kid who looked like his mind wasn't entirely there. She decided it was the better of two evils and sat down next to him.

A Hyperion robot walked through the door and turned to the class. "Attention class," it stated in a metallic monotone voice, "We are now going to fill your dirty criminally insane minds with knowledge about important things. My name is Hyperion Teacher Model 84556, and I will be filling you with said knowledge. I enjoy a relaxed class, but there is one rule: don't shoot at the teacher. All caught shooting at the teacher will be fined a total of thirty five dollars and thrown into the grinder." The robot pointed to a machine that looked like a giant paper shredder. "Now let us begin class"

The robot started to ramble on about Hyperion's glorious achievements, not noticing that no one was paying attention. The masked boys started to attack each other and scream "I'm gonna eat your babies!" Lilith decided she was going to avoid them. Lilith felt a tap on her shoulder and turned to see a large boy covered in intimidating, mismatching armor. He smirked at her with a look of pure lust, a look that made her feel very uncomfortable.

He finally spoke up and said, "Hey baby, wanna take a ride on the Sledge express!"

Lilith rolled her eyes "Sorry, that train may be two small for both of us, go bother some other girl"

Sledge growled and grabbed her arm. Lilith screamed and tried to pull away, but he was too strong. "Honey, I think you may want to reconsider," he whispered sinisterly into her ear.

"Let go of me!" yelled Lilith as she hit tried to reach for the revolver Luke had given her. Just as Sledge started to lean in, something suddenly pulled him off. She turned to see the kid who was sitting next to her holding up Sledge by the collar and Sledge whimpering and kicking like a little bitch.

"Don't touch her, is that understood!"

"Yes Roland!" whimpered Sledge, who Lilith was pretty sure had just wet his pants.

"That's what I thought" Roland dropped Sledge on the ground, which soon scampered to the other corner of the room. Lilith looked in awe as Roland then sat down at his desk and continued to sharpen his knife like nothing had happened. _I should thank him_, she thought, _after all he did just stop that brute from doing whatever he had planned for me, not that I couldn't have handled the situation myself_. Lilith walked over to Roland and tapped him on the shoulder. He looked up and gave her a curious look, almost as if a stranger had stopped him on the street.

"I just wanted to thank you for, you know, not letting me get killed by that guy," said Lilith

"No problem, I was planning to beat the shit out of him anyways for burning down my friend's locker anyways"

Lilith nodded "I'm new to this, err school, and I was wondering if you mind showing my friend and I around."

"I don't know," said Roland "I got stuff I gotta do and…"

Lilith cut him off by leaning in so close he could feel her breath and seductively whispered in his ear "Please, I'm gonna need a big strong man who knows his way around to help protect me the time being"

"Uhh, ummm, okay," stammered Roland, obviously falling for her seductive charm.

Lilith smiled and walked back to her desk, she couldn't believe her act had actually worked! Lilith was no helpless woman, but she knew how to "recruit" a man's help when she needed to.

After class Lilith met up with Luke to tell him about Roland taking them on a tour of the prison. Luke was somewhat hesitant to trust this guy, he didn't like the looks of many of his fellow students and would be crushed if he let one hurt Lilith. But since Lilith seemed to trust this Roland guy so much, he decided just to go with it.

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The two met up with Roland near the "All Hail Hyperion" flagpole after they had finished their classes. Lilith was extremely excited to see Roland again, she didn't know why though; she had just met the guy. Something about him made him different from the rest at this school. She started to speed up to try to get there faster but Luke suddenly held his arm out in front of her.

"Uh, what are you doing?" she raised her eyebrow, giving him a judging glance

"You didn't say he was bringing friends," said Luke, pulling his favorite revolver from its holster. Lilith slapped the revolver out of his hands and shot him a death glare. He picked up his revolver and put it away, grumbling while doing so. The two continued to walk over to meet the group.

"So you're just gonna let this random chick into our group?" asked a boy in an army getup with sandy blonde hair

"I told you, she needs help getting used to this hell hole"

"I for one, think our group needs another girl, you idiots are all just over paranoid" said a girl with strangely similar tattoos tow Lilith's.

"All of you shut up, here she comes," growled Roland

Lilith waved to the strange group, but Luke was still weary, his hand hovering over his revolver. The blonde haired boy noticed Luke's pistol and said, "You better tell your friend to calm it down with that handgun"

Lilith elbowed him and Luke begrudgingly took his hand away from the gun.

"Sorry about Axton, I guess he's as cautious as your friend over there" Roland nodded towards Mordecai.

"It's OK," giggled Lilith, "he's not to bad once you get to know him"

"Well this is our group, the blue haired girl is Maya, you've already met Axton, the big guy is Brick, the short guy is Salvador," Salvador yelled in protest but Roland continued, "and the one with the katana is Zer0."

Lilith looked around at the huge group; it was like one big, dysfunctional family.

**Any suggestions on writing or story would be greatly appreciated, thanks for reading!**


	2. Chapter 2

**I figured I should probably have at least two chapters out so people can get more into the story before writing reviews and such. Again, be gentle because this is my first. Grammar is pretty good and I tried to keep the character interaction interesting.**

Chapter Two: First Rule of Fight Club

The group started to walk towards a large tower like building, guarded by robots that would kill without hesitation.

"This is our dorm, you can stay here with the rest of us. It's a little small and only has one bathroom, but it's the closest thing we have to home right now." said Roland as they walked towards the building. They went inside and saw three doors, one with a girl sign on it, one with a boy sign on it, and one that said bathroom.

"Here is our hall way, you will be rooming with Maya, don't hog the bathroom" Zero explained

_That kinda sounded like a haiku_, Lilith though to herself, she never thought any of the students would actually be articulate. Suddenly Handsome Jack's voice was once again heard over the loud speaker.

"Hello Pandora, Handsome Jack here again letting you know curfew is in thirty minutes, if you don't want to be burned alive or subjected to slag experimentation I suggest to make yourself scarce around that time. Have a good night!"

"He's a fucking tyrant," grumbled Maya, frustrated with the earlier curfew

Roland shook his head "Jack is going to get what's coming to him, but for now lets just get to our rooms before the Loaders start laying down the law"

Everyone nodded in agreement and headed to their rooms.

"I like your choice of tattoos Lily, can I call you Lily?" said Maya

"Sure, and about the tattoos I was kinda born with them, they are a byproduct of…"

"Being a siren," Maya interrupted, "I know all about it, how do you think I got these tattoos?"

Lilith was elated, she had never actually met another siren before, she had heard there are six in the universe but to meet another one in person was incredible!

"So, what can you do?" asked Maya

"Oh, my siren power allows me to phase walk, basically walk in a different dimension for a short amount of time" answered Lilith, "so what can you do?"

"I have phase lock, basically telekinesis"

Maya then proceeded to use her powers to pick up a nearby book and bring it over to her. She opened the book and started to right in it, Lilith soon noticed that it was some sort of religious text.

"I didn't take you as the religious type," remarked Lilith

"I was raised by monks," Maya quickly responded. It was fairly evident that it was a touchy subject that she did not want to revisit. Maya finished writing in the book and put it on the nightstand right next to her bed. She turned to Lilith and asked "So, what do you think of the group so far?"

"Well Brick looks pretty intimidating, Axton seems pretty normal, Salvador looks like he fits right in this place, I don't know much about Zer0 and I feel like I'm not gonna learn much either, and of course Roland is," Lilith started to blush, Maya quickly saw and started to giggle.

"What?" Lilith was getting flustered at this point

"Nothing, it's just you seem to be very interested in our fearless leader. Lilith's face was completely red at this point.

"It's not that! He's just a nice guy, that's all…" stammered Lilith

"Don't worry honey, I'm dating an idiot myself right now" laughed Maya

"Who are you dating?"

"Axton and I have been together for a while now, although I'm pretty sure he's having an affair with that turret he's built," joked Maya

"Well I think I'm gonna go to sleep before the guard bots break down the doors and turn me into a bloody swiss cheese," Lilith said as she laid down to sleep

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The next day in class Lilith made sure she sat next to Roland again. Something about him made her feel safe, like someone was looking after her. Even though Luke had always looked after her, something was different about Roland. On her other side sat Luke, who after the incident with Sledge was determined to stay by Lilith. In front of her sat Zer0, who didn't even seem to be acknowledging his surroundings. She had people zone out, but this was different, it was like he wasn't even alive. She looked over to Roland and nodded her head towards Zer0, but Roland just shrugged and continued his class work on the great conquests of the all-powerful Hyperion Corporation. Lilith decided to poke Zer0 in the back, just to make sure he was still alive, but right when she touched him, her hand went right through his back. She felt someone flick the back of her head and turned around to see Salvador giving her a weird look. _Oh no_, she thought, _not another pig trying to force himself on me_.

"What do you want?" she hissed

"Don't poke the hologram or you'll blow his cover," Salvador whispered back, sounding a bit annoyed

"What, why is there a hologram Zer0?"

Salvador rolled his eyes in exasperation "He is going to raid the Hyperion weapons supplies to get us some nice guns for fight club"

"Fight club?" Lilith asked

"Yeah, Roland and Maya don't like it too much, but Zer0, Axton, and I love it. It's a great way to earn a reputation around here, plus it can help you get recognition"

Lilith rose her eyebrows sarcastically "To be famous amongst criminals and psychopaths, gee that sounds great"

"Naw amiga, street cred is great," Salvador laughed, "for example, some people think I'm half rhino right now!'

Lilith thought the idea was pretty interesting, she had always been an excellent fighter and now she had a way to put her skills to the test. She nudged Luke to try to get his attention, he was gonna want to hear about this one.

"What is it?" whispered Luke

"The group is going to go to do something called fight club this afternoon," she said, "wanna come with?"

"Sure, I guess it sounds like fun"

Luke, admittedly, always had a bit of a crush on Lilith, he had known her most of his life. _This fight club may give me a chance to impress Lilith_, he thought to himself.

After class the group met up at the flagpole once more to receive their cache of weapons.

"Where is he…" said Axton as he paced back and forth

"I really hope he didn't get shot," remarked Salvador, "he was growing on me"

Just then, as if on queue, Zer0 appeared right in front of them. He dropped a bag and out spilled enough guns to supply a rebellion. Roland's eyes widened as he looked through the gear.

"Now I usually don't condone fight club, but with this arsenal we can win some serious cash!" he exclaimed

"Alright!" Axton shouted gleefully, "nice work Zer0, we are gonna make so much fucking money!"

Zero responded with a red money sign hologram that hovered in front of his mask. Lilith looked through the weapons, SMGs, assault rifles, shotguns, snipers, the works! She sifted through and found a light and sleek looking SMG that she decided upon.

"You got a good eye," said Roland

"Really, how so?" Lilith asked as she examined the gun

"That's a Tediore SMG phoenix series, it shoots incendiary ammo and has an insane fire rate"

_Wow, Roland really knows his way around a gun, I wonder if that has something to do with why he's in here_, thought Lilith.

"A worthy weapon, now they will bow to my skills, this will be badass"

Everyone turned their head to see Zer0 holding an expensive looking, high quality sniper rifle. On the side the Atlas logo, the rifle was jet black with two red streaks coming down each side of the gun.

"What gun is that?" asked Luke, looking at the weapon in awe

"That's an Atlas Apollo D347H-5H07, one of the highest quality sniper rifles in existence!" Roland answered as he examined the gun

Salvador shook his head "Snipers are not my thing, you can have it"

Once the whole group was armed with their weapon of choice, they walked over to a large circle of bleachers. Near the entrance to the stadium, there was a ticket booth. Salvador went up and knocked three times on the window; right after the third knock they heard a voice.

"What's the password honey?"

"4th husband" responded Salvador

The ticket booth door flew open and an elevator disguised as the booth wall opened. The group walked in and the doors then slid closed. The elevator quickly descended until it screeched to a halt. The doors opened and there they saw a large field with a huge pillar in the middle. On top of the pillar was the girl with the top hat and white makeup Lilith had seen Luke sit next to on the first day.

"Hello challengers!" yelled the girl, "welcome to Mad Moxxi's fight club!"

The crowd roared, they chanted her name in a drunken frenzy.

"As you can see we have returning challengers, mmm my favorite team! Salvador the crazed gunzerker, Zer0 the assassin, Brick the berserker, Maya the Siren, Roland the soldier, Axton the commando, and uhhh what are your names sweetheart?

"I am Lilith the Siren, and this is my friend Luke the professional thief." Lilith yelled to the chanting croud

Moxxi smiled "OK sweeties, are you ready to RUMBLE"

This sent the crowd into an even larger frenzy, Moxxi sure new how to rile up her fans. Moxxi blew a good luck kiss to them and yelled, "The first fight, the Crimson Raiders vs. the Midget Brigade!"

Ten midgets ran out onto the stadium, all of them yelling and screeching as loudly as they could.

"LET THE GAMES BEGIN!"

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Ten rounds later the Crimson Raiders had defeated all the challengers except one, the arena champion.

"Well looks like we have some actual skill out there!" announced Moxxi, "but is it enough to defeat our arena champion? For this challenge only two may fight against our champion! Choose well Raiders!"

The team huddled together to try to decide who should fight the arena champion. Maya was looking pretty tired from the overuse of her siren powers. Salvador was feeling the effects from all the steroids he had taken earlier, so he wasn't up to fight. In round nine, an enemy had slagged Axton's turret and the thing was in dire need of repair. Brick was distracted at the moment, he had just found a cute little puppy and no one had the heart (or the courage) to tell him to focus. Zer0 was out of sniper ammo and had told them "My sword needs repair, my gun lacks ammunition, I will sit this out." This left Roland, Luke and Lilith to choose from.

"I can go another round, I still have the energy to use my siren powers," said Lilith

Everyone nodded in agreement; her phase walk ability had proven itself quite useful.

Seeing that Lilith had volunteered, Luke quickly said, "I guess I can go, it'll be just like old times, eh Lilith?"

"If I may," interrupted Maya, "I believe Roland should go, his turret's support and healing abilities could be necessary in a fight like this."

Luke did not like that idea one bit, he was already worried he was losing Lilith, he didn't want there to be a chance of her falling for this guy. He was about to voice his unhappiness when Axton cut him off.

"I agree, I would be going in their myself, but I gotta tend to the miss (the nickname he had given his turret)"

"I guess it's you and me then," said Roland, giving Lilith a friendly nudge

"Oh, uh, yeah I guess it is," she stammered. Luke could not have been more frustrated.

Roland and Lilith entered the battlefield to the cheers of the spectators. Lilith smiled and blew a kiss to them, which many proceeded to fight with guns for. Roland just smiled and waved; he didn't seem too interested in showboating.

"And now, we give you our champion!" announced Moxxi

Smoke began to form around the middle of the arena, the pounding of the crowd like a tribal rhythm. Lilith then saw a metallic arm rise from the smoke, holding a large assault rifle. _That rifle looks really heavy, whoever can hold that up in one hand must almost be as strong as Salvador_, she thought. The smoke cleared and where the fog once was, stood a fifteen-year-old girl.

"Introducing… GAIGE THE MECHROMANCER!"

The crowd exploded in cheers and claps, Roland looked with confusion at the champion. She was just a little girl! Gaige smiled and yelled back to the crowd "What chump has Moxxi brought me today!" The crowd started chanting her name, but also something else.

"What's DT?" Lilith asked Roland

"I don't know," responded Roland, just as confused as she was, "but whatever it is, it can't be good"

"3, 2, 1, FIGHT!"

Roland threw down a turret and took cover behind its digi-shield, Lilith ran for cover behind a boulder that was near where Roland had set up. Gaige's assault rifle burst to life as she started trying to break their cover. Roland nodded towards Gaige, signaling Lilith two phase walk close to her and catch her by surprise. Lilith disappeared and ran towards Gaige to try to catch her by surprise. Gaige was focused on trying to break Roland's defenses she hadn't noticed the siren sneaking up behind her. Lilith grabbed her by the neck and lifted her up, kicking and struggling.

Lilith calmly said "Surrender"

Gaige just smirked and brought her metallic arm up and clenched it, light was emitting from the cybernetic limb. Lilith was confused, nothing had actually happened, right? From across the field she heard Roland yell "LILITH, BEHIND YOU!" Lilith turned around just in time to see a rather large robot rearing back, about to slash her with its claws. She dropped Gaige and rolled away to escape its swipe.

"Get 'em Death Trap!" yelled Gaige, who was jumping and cheering for her metallic bodyguard.

"Well I guess we found out what DT is," said Lilith

Roland nodded, "there's got to be a way around that thing…"

Roland observed the battlefield and noticed a pulley crane attached to a large box with a hook on the other end. He thought out the whole situation in his head, Roland was close to a tactical genius. Roland ran out from cover and grabbed the hook of the crane.

"What are you doing, are you insane?!" yelled Lilith

"Just trust me!" Roland then turned to Death Trap and yelled, "Hey ugly! Your mother was a spark plug!"

Death trap lurched into action, flying straight towards Roland. Lilith gasped in horror; she thought Roland was done for. Roland dodged its claws and dived under the mechanical menace. He then hooked Death trap onto the crane and ran. Death trap tried to follow but soon found something was pulling it back. The crate was too heavy for it; Death Trap was stuck like a dog on a leash. Gaige ran to free her robot but Lilith grabbed her by the collar and threw her down.

"Now surrender?" smirked Lilith

Gaige sighed, "Fine, you two win…"

The crowd started chanting their name, they had actually beaten the champion! The two just waved to the crowd.

"Looks like we've got a winner!" announced Moxxi, "the Crimson Raiders, led by Roland and Lilith have defeated our champion!"

Moxxi smiled and winked at the two, "You both make a good team, is something else going on behind the scenes?"

That made both Roland and Lilith blush and hide their faces. Lilith leaned in and kissed Roland, making his blush more apparent, despite his dark skin.

"And now," yelled Moxxi, "your prize!"

A tall boy with a mask and a bird on his shoulder jumped down from the pillar. He pulled out a bag, bursting with money. Lilith looked at it hungrily; it was the fruits of their labor, probably stolen, but she was fine with that. The boy shook hands with Roland and said "Man you guys got something I ain't never seen before! Nice work!"

"Thanks uhh…"

"Names Mordecai, I help my girlfriend run this place,"

"Wow," said Roland, "Moxxi's your girlfriend?"

"Yeah, I dunno if it's love, but it sure is interesting," joked Mordecai, "well here's your cash, make sure to come back. You guys make this place interesting"

Lilith laughed, "Will do Mord"

Mordecai waved to them and climbed back onto the pillar. The two ran back to the locker room and met with their team.

"THAT WAS INCREDIBLE AMIGOS!" bellowed Salvador

"Your movements were swift, your mind was calculating, it was fucking sweet"

Axton gave Roland a pat on the back and high fived Lilith. Brick came in for a big bear hug that they, unfortunately, could not escape.

"Nice shooting there slugger," said Maya, who still seemed pretty out of commission. Luke was silent; he had seen their celebration for the audience and was not pleased with what had happened. He didn't want to lose her to some stranger, and now the task seemed almost impossible. He watched as the group held up the two victors and marched out triumphantly.


	3. Chapter 3

** titans vs gods: Don't worry, Gaige will be more involved as the story goes on, but not as a love interests for Zer0. I've got other plans for him :)**

**Enjoy the next chapter everyone!**

Chapter Three: Ain't No Rest for the Wicked

Yesterday's fight seemed to have given the Crimson Raider gang some serious recognition, some of the crazy ones even started to worship Lilith as a god (not that she enjoyed it). Anyone who was brave enough to mess with them earlier sure didn't have the balls to do it now. Sledge and his posse seemed to migrate closer to the corner of the room and further away from Roland and Lilith each day in class.

The next morning, Lilith and Maya were getting ready for class in their room when they heard Handsome Jack's taunting voice over.

"Hey there Pandora Juvenile Correctional Facility, I've just been alerted that you convicts must have some interaction with the outside world so that you can better integrate when you have done your time. Now normally I would laugh at the idea and put a hit on the messenger who told me, but apparently they can take away my diamond pony, so I guess I have to. So I decided we will take a little trip to New Haven and stay there for a bit. That is all… Good, maybe some of these little bastards will get themselves killed… What? Still on? Oh I don't care, they already know I want them all to die in numerous excruciating and comedic ways." With that the loud speaker cut off with a static crack.

"What a charming fellow," joked Maya

Lilith laughed and said "Yeah, well if I was stuck watching over psychopathic children I would be pretty pissed off too"

The two girls heard a knock on the door and saw Axton standing at the doorway

"Nice g-strings hon, why not where those?"

Maya looked over and saw her cabinet was opened, revealing her collection of more risqué clothing. Maya turned and smiled at him seductively, not the reaction Axton was expecting. "Who knows, maybe I am," she whispered in his ear. Maya left the room leaving Axton fairly confused about what just happened and Lilith cracking up.

"Erm, anyways Roland wants to let you all know that it would be a good idea to bring a gun, a fairly large one at that."

Lilith raised her eyebrow in confusion, "Oh, and why is that?"

"New Haven's name is horribly misleading, it's really home to many criminals and psychopaths, even the infamous Blood Shots."

Lilith nodded and opened her dresser and pulled out the SMG she had gotten from Zer0 yesterday. She holstered it and headed out the door to meet up with the rest of her group. When she got outside she saw all the prisoners lined up ready to board the bus.

She ran over to meet with the other Raiders and found Roland was discussing seating arrangements.

"Alright people, as we know the bus rides here can be dangerous and unforgiving. No one wants to end up sitting next to a cannibal or a midget psycho, or for that matter a cannibal midget psycho"

Maya shivered, "those are the worst"

"Yeah," said Roland, "nobody wants that. So everyone grab someone who they wanna sit next to. Also since Brick takes up two seats, one of us will have to sit next to an outsider. Whoever is going to sit with this outsider, just make sure it's someone who you can trust."

Axton linked his arm around Maya and shot her a grin, while she just rolled her eyes. Zer0 and Salvador fist bumped, a universal sign of brotherhood. Luke walked over to Lilith, determined not to let this opportunity go, and asked "Hey Lil, wanna sit next to each other on the bus. Lilith looked over to Roland, who she honestly wanted to sit next to, but decided it would be fine to spend a little time with Luke.

"Sure, why not," she said

"Great!" Luke said excitedly, he ran onto the bus to try to grab them good seats. Lilith looked over and saw Roland chatting with that Mordecai guy they had seen earlier in the arena. Roland saw her looking over at them and waved to her. She smiled and waved back, desperately wishing she could get to know him better. Roland walked over to Lilith with Mordecai, thinking the exact same thing about her.

"Hey Lilith," said Roland, "you remember Mordecai right?"

"Yeah, Moxxi's boyfriend?" she smiled

Mordecai laughed "That's right, although she's already found someone two sit next to"

"And who is that?" asked Lilith

"Gaige, remember you fought her last night"

Lilith remembered the little girl with the mechanical arm and the impressive robot. She wondered how she took the loss of her champion title.

Roland asked, "So have you found someone to sit with Lilith?"

Lilith nodded her head and said, "yeah, Luke and I are gonna sit together on the way there."

"Good," responded Roland, "I'm actually gonna be sitting in the row across from you along with Mordecai here. We're thinking about letting him join the raiders."

"What can you do?" Lilith asked Mordecai

Mordecai smirked and said, "Do you know why I'm in here?"

Lilith shook her head in response, which only made Mordecai's smile wider. He obviously enjoyed telling this story.

"Ten years ago I won the Galaxy Sniper Contest"

"And that lands you in prison how?"

Mordecai's smile was huge now, "Let me finish, I won the Galaxy Sniper Contest with just a revolver"

Lilith's jaw dropped. That competition was the most difficult challenge for a sniper, to win it with a sniper took incredible skill, but to win it with a revolver, insane.

"I still don't see how that got you arrested…" asked Roland, now very curious after hearing about this achievement.

Mordecai shrugged and said, "They thought I was cheating so I was arrested on the spot"

"Hey you, talking outside! Get on the bus, time is money, and money is everything!" yelled the bus driver.

"Yeah, yeah hold on Marcus" Roland called back. He turned to Lilith and said, "I'm looking forward to learning your story on the bus."

Lilith smiled and walked back to the bus. Roland watched her as she left. _Damn_, he thought to himself,_ what a woman…_

Marcus was not a careless driver. He was insane driver. Lilith couldn't even count the number of times he had went out of his way to hit a skag or how many red lights he had run. He had at least plowed through three cars; it was a miracle that they had not gotten pulled over yet.

"Ugh I think I'm gonna be sick," Luke grumbled

"Yeah," Lilith laughed, "I've never seen a braver driver."

Luke started to daze off. She was just so perfect. He couldn't think of anyone who made him feel like Lilith made him feel.

"Luke? Dude why are you staring at me like that? Is there something in my teeth?"

Luke snapped out of his daze and stammered "Uh, no there's nothing wrong, it's just, uhh"

"What is it?" snapped Lilith

"I was wondering if you wanted to have dinner with me at New Haven"

Lilith was silent for a second, and then laughed "I'm gonna be eating dinner with you and everyone else anyways! Who do you think I would eat with?"

"No, I mean with me alone, at a restaurant, like a date. Lilith stopped laughing and looked at him. She didn't know what to say, yeah she liked Luke; she had known him his whole life. Did she like him like this though? She looked at Luke, who looked like she had already rejected him.

"Let me, just think about it, OK?"

Luke raised his head and nodded, feeling a little better about his chances.

"Roland!"

"Huh?"

Mordecai laughed and patted him on the back. "You were kinda zoning out there buddy, what were ya thinking about?"

Roland had been listening to Lilith and Luke's conversation about dinner the whole time; he had not really heard what Mordecai was saying earlier.

"Just thinking," he responded

"You aren't to talkative eh?"

Mordecai looked at Roland and saw he had turned his attention towards Lilith once again. Roland was not to crush that she and Luke had a thing, he had predicted there might be something between them. If they had something, why did she kiss him in the arena? It was probably just celebration.

"ROLAND!"

Roland looked back at Mordecai who was giving him a smug look. "What?"

"You really seem to be interested in this Lilith chick"

Roland shook his head and said, "She's nice, but I think we're gonna be just friends"

"Just friends? Roland you're one of the only sane people here, there aren't many to choose from"

"Even if that is true, I'm pretty sure she has a boyfriend already…"

Mordecai laughed and said, "Didn't stop Moxxi"

Roland gave him a funny look, but Mordecai didn't seem to notice.

"Hey amigos!"

Mordecai and Roland turned around to see Salvador with an evil smile on his face. "You two gotta check this out!" Salvador pointed to the front of the bus where two midgets were sitting next to each other. Suddenly an invisible force punched one in the face. The midget who had just been punched turned around and punched the other one, thinking he had been the one who punched him and soon the situation escalated into an all out midget fight. Mordecai cracked up, pointing at the two wrestling little people. Roland couldn't help but smile; he would enjoy life for the moment and worry about Lilith later.

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"We're here!" yelled Marcus, "Now get off my bus!"

Everyone ran off as fast as they could, no one wanted to get on Marcus's bad side. They arrived at their hotel. All the Raiders met up in front of the hotel to decide rooming, they needed to strategically place themselves so that if something went wrong, they would be ready.

"Alright Raiders, choose who you want to room with and we will assign rooms according to that" commanded Roland

Immediately, everyone paired up with the person they had ridden with, except for Mordecai, Luke, Lilith, and Roland. The group saw Moxxi and Gaige approach them, probably to ask for money or something like that.

"Hey guys!" said Gaige, "Long time no see!"  
"How's it going sweeties?" asked Moxxi, "We were just wondering if we could room with your big strong gang"

As she said this, she rubbed Mordecai's arm in an arousing manner.

"Uhh, Roland I think I may room with Moxxi this time" Mordecai stammered

Roland smiled and said, "Sure thing soldier, just be careful."

"Oh don't worry," Moxxi said seductively, "I'll take good care of him…"

As the two walked away, Roland turned back to the group to address them.

"So now I don't have a roommate, anyone wanna room with me?"

Lilith thought about it for a second, then raised her hand and said, "I'll room with ya"

Luke was practically burning with rage at that point, but he decided to hold his tongue. Roland nodded and said, "well Luke, you can room with Gaige then"

Gaige smiled and said, "Don't worry dude, Death Trap won't hurt you! You know, unless, you shove me or something."

After dinner, Lilith and Roland retired to their room, tired and almost ready to go to sleep.

"You can get first shower," he said, "I'll just wait for second?"

Lilith nodded and went into the bathroom to strip down and wash. _Honey, I'd gladly strip down right in front of you_, she thought. She quickly mentally reprimanded herself, _NO bad Lilith, I don't even know the guy that well; how can I already be thinking that_? She washed up as quickly as she could and put on some cloths. She headed out of the bathroom and saw Roland sitting on their balcony. He looked like he was looking at something, but she couldn't tell what it was. She decided to walk over to him and find out, thinking maybe it might help her learn more about him.

"Hey," she said as she walked towards him. Roland didn't seem to hear her, he was focused in something else. Lilith walked up right next to him and asked him, "So whatchya looking at out here?"

"Ah!" Roland jumped back and dropped a notebook on the ground.

"What's this?" asked Lilith, leaning down to pick it up.

"Wait don't look at i-," Too late. Lilith had already picked up the book and opened it up to look at its contents. In the book she saw that there were writings about what had happened today, it was Roland's journal! She saw he wrote about Mordecai joining the group, Zer0's midget antics, and… the conversation she had with Luke?

"Give that back," snapped Roland as he grabbed the book out of her hands

"You heard my conversation with Luke on the bus?" she asked, slightly annoyed

"You were sitting right across from me, it was hard not to!"

"That doesn't make it right!"

Lilith crossed her arms and turned her back to him, expecting him to yell right back.

"Your right…"

"What?" Lilith turned around in surprise, the anger in her face replaced with shock

"It wasn't right of me to eavesdrop in on your conversation,"

Lilith was shocked; he actually was honorable enough to admit his wrongdoing. How was this guy in prison?

"Apology accepted I guess," she said, the fight had been taken right out of her. She stared off into the stars for a bit until Roland's voice broke the silence.

"So are you gonna do it?"

"Do what?"

"You know," he said, "go out with him"

Lilith thought about what to say for a second, and then said, "I don't know. I've known him for a while, but I just don't know if I feel the same way…"

Roland quietly sighed in relief, glad that he still had a shot.

"So do you have a girlfriend?" asked Lilith

"Naw, I don't meet many girls who aren't off the deep end insane" joked Roland

Lilith laughed nervously since she wasn't exactly able to call herself sane either.

"You wanna go grab a drink and something to eat?" asked Roland

Lilith laughed and said, "Well didn't we just eat dinner?"

"I don't know about you, but I didn't touch the disgusting stuff."

Lilith laughed again in agreement, "I guess I could go for something"

The two walked down the stairs and out of the hotel to the bar across the streets. The two were technically not twenty-one, but on this side of the galaxy no one cared enough to actually check.

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After four drinks and a couple of pretzels, Lilith was completely wasted.

"Hey, hey Roland… guess what?"

Roland laughed and said, "What?"

"I think I canngo for one moredrink!" she slurred excitedly

Roland quickly said, "I think you've had enough Lilith"

"What, me? Naw ifthers one thing I can handle, it's my liquer,"

"Obviously," Roland said sarcastically.

Lilith gave him a funny look and then said, "Fine, but you gottacarry mehome prinze charming"

"OK then," Roland agreed. He let Lilith lean on him as the two walked out of the bar and helped her up the stairs to there room. On their way down the hall they saw Axton hanging out in his underwear near the soda machine.

Roland looked at him curiously and said, "Uhhh, what are you doing?"

"Getting soda, what's it look like," Axton replied nonchalantly

Roland gave him another look, and then continued, "In your underwear?"

"Yup"

"Hey Axton, you have an nice elbow!" Lilith snickered

Axton raised his eyebrow at her and turned to Roland. "Seriously dude, you got her drunk?"

Roland immediately started blushing and said, "What? No no no! She did this to herself, I'm just trying to help her back to her room!"

Axton rolled his eyes at him "Whatever you say man, whatever you say"

Axton grabbed his soda and brought it back to his room, where they heard Maya say, "You didn't seriously just go out there in your boxers, right?"

Roland decided not to think about what had just happened to hard and take Lilith back to their room. He opened the door and turned on the lights. Roland threw the key card on the nightstand and then helped Lilith sit down on the couch. Lilith was starting to sober up a little bit, but she still seemed pretty out of it. Roland looked at Lilith; she had managed to take off her jacket, showing her tank top underneath. She really had an incredible body; Roland had to resist trying not to take advantage of the situation.

"Thanks for the help Roland,"

Roland snapped out of his daze and gave her a small smile, "No problem Lil,"

"Who knows what might of happened if I had to walk by myself, I probably would have broken my arm!" She looked over to him and saw that he was paying attention to something else. He was staring at her chest! She was flattered, but felt like she should probably do something about it.

"Hey killer, eyes up here" she said with a smug smirk

Roland quickly snapped out of his trance and started to apologize frantically

"It's ok, it's ok!" Lilith laughed, "We're both a little drunk I guess"

"A little?" asked Roland, "You should have seen yourself earlier!"

Lilith laughed again and said, "I guess I'm a bit of a light weight"

Lilith didn't know if it was the alcohol or just the fact that Roland was a great guy, but she wanted him, now. Lilith got up and sat in Roland's lap, much two his surprise and set her plan into motion. "I had a great time Roland," she said in her best seductive voice, "I don't have much money so is there _anything_ I can do to repay you…" Roland looked extremely uncomfortable with the situation. As much as he liked it he couldn't help but feel it was wrong about it. Lilith decided she need to take the initiative here, so with liquid courage giving her strength, she ran her hand down his cheek and started to lean in. Roland couldn't resist at this point, he just leaned in and let the intoxication take him. The two started to kiss passionately, letting themselves explore each other's mouths. Roland suddenly snapped back into reality and realized what he was doing. He couldn't and wouldn't take advantage of her while she was drunk. Roland pulled away and Lilith gave him a confused look.

"I can't do this," he sighed, "you're so drunk you probably don't know what you're doing. I can't let you make a choice you might later regret." Lilith frowned, was this guy serious? Roland looked away in shame and walked over to his bed and fell down onto it.

"Good night Lilith…" he called from his bed

"Good night Roland," Lilith said dejectedly.


	4. Chapter 4

**I will try to post as often as I can regardless of reviews but I do urge readers to do so. I am not only doing this for personal enjoyment but also to improve as a writer, so please give me some feedback.**

Chapter Four: One of Those Days

Lilith woke up the next morning with a splitting headache. _I must have gotten really drunk last night_ she thought to herself as she rubbed her temples. She checked herself to make sure she had all her cloths on. Nope, not braless. She checked under her covers and saw still had her panties, now to do a damage assessment. She looked around and saw Roland walking out of the bathroom, his eyes almost as bloodshot as hers. He looked at her and gave her an awkward smile, then grabbed his coat and put it on. _Shit, I almost forgot about what happened last night_, remembered Lilith.

"So about last night," she said, trying to hide her shame

Roland gave her another weak smile. "Don't worry about it Lilith, lets just forget it happened ok?"

Lilith didn't know if she wanted to forget it though, he had shown her one of the best times of her life. She figured that now was not the best time to continue this conversation though, maybe later, but not right now.

Everyone had gathered the next morning in the lobby, the Raiders, were ready to see the infamous city of New Haven.

"Amigos! What took you so long?" yelled Salvador, "I'm ready to see the city!"

"Sorry it took so long, there were some, complications," said Roland

Luke looked over at Lilith and noticed that she looked like a skag was about to burst from her head. He figured he might as well ask her what happened last night, even though he was nervous to hear what it was.

"Hey Lil, you look terrible right now" he said

"Thanks," Lilith muttered, "that's what every girl wants to hear in the morning"

Realizing his mistake, Luke quickly corrected himself, "I meant you look like you're not feeling well, you're beautiful as always."

"Yeah," Lilith nervously laughed

"I'll tell you what happened last night," butted in Axton, "our girl Lilith got shitfaced and had to have Roland carry her back!"

Lilith shot Axton a death glare, Luke could not hold in his anger much longer. Luke stormed off, leaving Axton and Lilith.

"Fuck you Axton,"

"What did I say?"

Lilith went after Luke, hoping to stop whatever was about to happen. Luke marched straight up to Roland, who was talking to Maya about the schedule.  
"What the hell were you thinking!"

Roland turned around to see Luke holding a gun and looking very upset

"Calm it down soldier, we don't want anyone to get hurt," Roland said while eying the pistol.

"YOU TOOK LILITH OUT AND GOT HER DRUNK!"

"I know, and I still feel really bad about it, don't be mad at her because it was my fault."

"Why would I be mad at her? YOU TOOK ADVANTAGE OF HER!" Luke yelled

That's when Roland got angry, "Listen soldier, I don't know what you think you're talking about but I would NEVER do that!"

"Alright you two calm yourselves down, we don't want anyone getting shot before we actually go out into the city" said Maya, trying to keep things from escalating further. Roland decided she was right and swallowed his anger so he could address the group.

"In a little bit we are going to leave the hotel and head into the city, and I want to make one thing clear. Everyone has each other's back; this city is also called the city of death for a reason. Three fourths of its population gets mugged each day. Bandits run rampant and I wouldn't be surprised if Handsome Jack is hoping at least half of us will die here."

Everyone nodded in understanding and readied themselves for the long day ahead. Once everyone had packed snacks and had armed themselves with various deadly weapons, the Crimson Raiders got on the bus to the inner city.

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The bus doors creaked open and the Raiders all got off. The bus driver grumbled to himself about how long the group was going to last, then drove off. Roland took point along with Axton, everyone else followed behind. Lilith was still depressed about what had happened earlier, she had never meant to hurt Luke, it's just that she never really liked him the way he liked her. Luke seemed to be staying behind by himself, feeling betrayed by Lilith.

"Luke seems very upset, what happened to him last night, you know him the most"

She turned to see Zer0 walking next to her holding his Apollo sniper rifle.

"Can you keep a secret?"

"I will be silent, no one will ever know your truth, my lips are sealed" Zer0 responded in his usual haiku

"Roland and I got drunk last night and kinda, sorta ended up making out, and Roland thought he was taking advantage of me. He feels really bad…"

Zer0's face was unreadable behind his mask, but he seemed surprised.

"People make dumb mistakes, Roland will not hold a grudge, why is Luke upset?"

Lilith sighed, "That's where it gets bad, you see Luke had just recently admitted his feelings for me. He doesn't actually know what happened, but I think he's put two and two together."

"Hey guy's what's up?" interrupted Gaige with an enthusiastic smile on her face

"Nothing," said Lilith, giving Zer0 a look that said 'if you tell anyone I will kill you'

"Hey, you guys know what was going on with Luke and Roland, the two seemed a little… PSYCHO!"

Lilith turned to see a crazed man running at her with a knife. Gaige pulled out a revolver and shot the man in the chest three times before he finally died.

"As I was saying," continued Gaige, "the two seemed a little pissed, which is weird because Luke seemed so cheerful after the bus ride yesterday."

"It's because our little heartbreaker here has them both on a leash," Moxxi walked up from behind and joined in on the conversation, "obviously both Luke and Roland want our favorite red headed siren."

Lilith rolled her eyes and said, "and your one two talk about leading men on"

"Guilty as charged," joked Moxxi, "I was born to be a heartbreaker"

"You should tell the truth, this problem can only get worse, Roland deserves it"

Lilith decided Zer0 was probably right, but she still needed to give it some time. With Luke still mad and Roland's damn virtue nothing good could come out of the situation. Roland looked back at Lilith, he still felt bad about what had happened, but something was really bothering him. He didn't regret what he did at all. Lilith was good looking and all, but usually he would feel like scum if he got a girl drunk then made out with her. Maybe it wasn't all that bad, she didn't seem to mind. _I should talk to her later_, he said to himself.

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The Raiders had finally gotten to the inner city, home to crime and ruthless capitalism. The streets were lined with the headquarters of major companies, such as Dahl and Hyperion, while the allies were infested with sick and coldblooded killers. Lilith saw the sidewalk littered with the homeless; this city's name truly was misleading

A little child walked up to Lilith and tugged at her boot. She looked down and the boy held out his hands and asked, "Can you spare some money, I haven't eaten in days. Lilith gave the boy a smile and handed him five dollars, enough to buy something small for himself. The boy gave her a toothless grin and ran back to his family. As he ran back Lilith suddenly felt cold metal on the back of her head,_ shit_.

"Give me all that you have or I'll paint the sidewalk with your brain!" threatened the man.

Lilith smiled,_ who does this guy think he his_? "I'd like to see you try,"

"You asked for it bitch!" yelled the man, but right as he pulled the trigger, Lilith started to flicker purple. To his terror, the bullet went right through her, not damaging her a bit.

"You're, you're a freak!" he screamed in horror

Lilith smiled and said, "I prefer the term siren honey"

The man held out his arm to fire another round, but in a split second found all that was left of his arm was a stump. Zer0 flickered into sight holding a bloody katana and the man's arm. Salvador picked up the gunman by the neck and brought him over to Roland.

"Let this be a lesson to all your friends," Roland growled, "don't fuck with the Crimson Raiders."

Roland nodded towards Salvador, who grinned maniacally at him. With a bloodcurdling crack, Salvador broke the man's arm and both his legs.

"Now you go crawling back to your little friends and tell them what happened!"

The criminal crawled away, holding his stump and trying to stop the blood loss. Roland turned to Lilith and asked her, "are you OK, did he hurt you?"

"I'm a big girl, I can take care of myself Roland," snickered Lilith

Roland sighed with relief and motioned for the group to keep moving.

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The Crimson Raiders stopped at food court to grab some lunch before heading back to the hotel. They quickly found, to their delight, that the shopkeepers had gotten so scared of being robbed that they left out the food with a sign that said, "Just take it and leave me alone!"

Lilith decided this would be a good time to talk to Roland about what had happened; _maybe we can get this awkwardness behind us_. Lilith saw Roland eating with Mordecai and Zer0 at one of the only tables that didn't have all it's chairs stolen. She walked over and sat down across from him and said, "Hey Roland, can we talk?"

"Uh oh, you're on your own for this one buddy," said Mordecai, hastily getting out of his seat.

"I can feel the awkward, It's too much for me to bear, abandon table" and with that Zer0 had left as well.

Roland looked at his feet and said, "I'm gonna go grab some more…"

"Hold it buster, we're gonna talk," snapped Lilith

"Look, as I said earlier, it's nothing. We were both drunk and it meant nothing."

Lilith was not going to let Roland get away that easily, "Well do you regret it?"

Roland's eyes widened, it was as if she knew what had been troubling him the whole day. _Shit_, he thought, _no getting away from this one, what do I say_? Lilith was starting to look cross and he did not want to room with an angry siren for the night. "Umm, well, uhh," he stammered, trying to form words, but it was difficult with Lilith staring into his soul with her yellow eyes.

"Well what?" said Lilith, tapping her foot. She was going to get an answer from him if it took all day. Roland nervously poked at his food, trying to think about what to say, but he couldn't think of anything. How could he face such a beautiful and dangerous girl after what had happened?

Lilith decided to take the initiative, seeing that she wasn't getting anywhere. "It's not like we screwed or anything, it was just a kiss!"

"That's not it," said Roland, "I would have been totally fine with it if you weren't drunk. All this time in prison I've tried to improve myself, but yet here I am six years later getting a girl I just met drunk and making out with her!"

"Wait, you would have been fine with it if I wasn't drunk?"

Roland's eyes widened and his face turned crimson, "that's what you took away from what I just said?"

"Look Roland, I don't want things to be awkward between us, but I don't go around acting like nothing ever happened!"

Roland gathered himself and said, "let's talk about this when we get back to the hotel"

Lilith was unsatisfied with that answer. "You can't just keep putting this off," she told him as she got up to join the rest of the Raiders at a different table. _Nice going Roland, now she's mad at you_.

"Off the wall, through the midget's cup, down the skag's throat,"

Everyone put their money on the table and Moxxi picked up the wad off cash and started to count it. Once she finished she nodded to Mordecai, who lifted his sniper rifle up and took a deep breath. He pulled the trigger and the rifle shot with a deafening bang. The bullet bounced off the wall, and broke the midget at the far table's shot glass. A skag, who had been startled by the sound, opened its mouth to roar. Just as Mordecai had predicted, the bullet went right down its gullet, causing the skag to fly backwards in a spectacular explosion of blood and goar. Moxxi smiled and stuffed the cash into her bra while everyone else sat at the table with their jaws open.

"Don't hold your mouth open for to long sweeties or you might swallow a fly," taunted Moxxi, who had moved onto Mordecai's lap, much to his pleasure. Lilith sat down next to Luke; she was obviously not in the best of moods. She took one look at Salvador's tequila and said, "gimme some of that"

Salvador laughed and passed her the bottle of alcohol. Just as she was about to down it, Luke swiped it out of her hands. "I think you've had enough booze this trip"

Lilith shot him a glare. She was nineteen years old, last time she checked she was aloud to drink.

"Hey Raiders!"

The group turned around and saw Roland running up to them in excitement. "I've found a better way to get back to the hotel!"

Everyone at the table leaned back to look past him and saw four fully working trucks.

"How did you get these?" asked Axton

"Well," said Roland, "I commandeered them from bandits. I figured since they were probably stolen anyway, it was fine if we stole them from the thieves.

Maya chuckled, "Oh the irony!"

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The Raiders pulled the cars into the hotel garage. Everyone got out, except for Zer0, who took a couple seconds to stumble out of his truck.

"My stomach is sick, I am seeing double now, I'll lie down a bit"

Axton laughed and said, "I told you not to let Gaige drive!"

"Hey I only hit eight cars!" said Gaige

Everyone immediately gave Gaige a look. Gaige stomped her foot in frustration

"Fine! Times five, I hit eight times five cars! It's not my fault a three year old could build a car with better controls!"

"At least she didn't have to hit every skag in sight," grumbeld Luke, glaring at Salvador

"Hey, I didn't only hit skags! There were some pedestrians! Which brings me to the fine…"

"Haha, we're not helping you pay that one dude!" laughed Axton

"What? The price for running people over is surprisingly low here!"

Maya shook her head and said, "This is the second most corrupt society I've ever seen"

The group walked over to the check in desk, which was run by a strange blue Hyperion robot.

"Hello sir or madam, I am the greeter robot," it cheerfully recited, "are you checking in or do you have a room?"

"Umm we already have a room, I think Jack put it under 'dead mofos'" answered Roland

The robot looked down and said, "Ahhh yes, Mr. and Mrs. Dead Mofos, how our your nine children, all named Piss for Brains, doing?"

Lilith rolled her eyes; _Jack, you are one immature son of a bitch_. Roland grabbed the key cards and distributed them to all of the Raiders. Everyone went to their own room and locked the door to prevent the theft of their valuables such as the room's bath tub, Zer0 and Salvador's had already been stolen. Or eaten. In this city you never know.

"I'm still waiting on an answer,"

Roland turned and saw Lilith with her hands on her hips glaring at him. He was able to avoid the subject for a little while after they had retired to there rooms, but there was truly no escape now, well except for the window.

"Well?"

Roland decided, fuck it, anything I do she'll be pissed about know. "Lilith, have I ever told you why I was put in prison?"

"No, but how does this…"

"Just listen," interrupted Roland, "When I was thirteen my father had left my family and my mom was trying to find a new father. A man named Jacob Knoxx had been trying to get her to sleep with him, but she refused him every time. Knoxx had known my mom for a while and she considered him only a friend, but he was not happy with that. One night the two went out for a drink and my mom got really drunk. Seeing this as his chance, Knoxx convinced her to screw with him. The next morning my mom woke up and saw what had happened, she screamed and cursed at Knoxx, telling him to leave and never come back. He got angry with her; so angry he broke her neck, right in front of me. He came after me next, screaming that I was next. I stumbled across the pistol my mom kept in her purse when I was trying to escape and decided to exact my revenge on the monster. When he turned the corner I pulled the trigger, shooting him three times through the chest. I swore from that day forth that I would be nothing like the man who tore my life apart."

Lilith was shocked by this story, she remembered seeing that a disturbed teenager had killed the great General Knoxx. She couldn't believe it, Roland was that kid!

"Roland," Lilith said, "I'm so sorry…"

"Don't be, you didn't do anything," Roland joked, trying to lighten up the mood

"Is that why you felt so awful about what happened?"

Roland nodded his head and said, "Honestly Lilith I think you're an amazing girl. You're smart, drop dead gorgeous, and not completely insane like most the people I know."

Lilith blushed when she heard this. "You know you aren't bad looking yourself, but you still haven't answered my question!"

Roland got up and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her in to kiss. Her eyes widened in surprise for a moment, but then closed so she could enjoy the moment. After a bit, the two released each other to catch their breath.

"How's that as an answer?"

Lilith smiled and winked at him, "perfect"

**I know this chapter was a bit fluffy, but I am going to amp up the action a bit in the next chapter. It will follow Zer0, my personal favorite, more then focusing on Roland and Lilith. If you have any suggestions please leave them in a review, but make sure they are legitimate and constructive to the story. Thanks for reading!**


	5. Chapter 5

**AN: This chapter focuses on Zer0 more (because he's my fav) and introduces another story I am going to have develop with the Lilith/Roland story. Enjoy reading and remember to leave a reviews and suggestions!**

Chapter Five: Hell's Angel

"Hey Zer0! Get the hell over here amigo, the commercials are about to end!" yelled Salvador

"Hold the fuck up dude, have to finish sharpening, my sword needs repair" Zer0 called back

"Well sharpen your katana quickly, Pandora's most badass is guest starring Steve and you DO NOT want to miss that!"

"I told you hold on, it will take a bit of time, my blade must be sharp"

Salvador grunted in submission and turned back around to watch TV. Zer0 sighed in relief and ran out the bathroom window. Once out the window Zer0 jumped his way up to the building, using his superhuman agility to jump roof to roof until he was at the top. Zer0 was the best assassin to ever live, or so he thought. No one knew the truth as to why he was imprisoned. When people asked he just told them he had gotten betrayed by a contractor, but in truth he was in juvie for a purpose. He was in their because of a contract, he was closer to his target then victim thought. He had been paid to kill one man, Handsome Jack. He did not know why someone wanted a mere warden dead, but when they told him the reward, the questions stopped. He did not know who the contractor was, but he knew that every two weeks or so she would contact him to check on his progress, and he was expecting that call tonight. Almost right when he reached the roof of the hotel his echo device started to ring.

"Hello again Zer0, how's the mission going?" a girls voice said over the communicator

"Jack is hard to reach, he has high security, this will take me time" responded Zer0 in his usual haiku

"I've realized that, so that is why I am coming to help you," said the mysterious contractor

"I am curious, I don't meet many clients, why are you coming?"

"Lets just say I have a personal vendetta against Jack and I want to see him fall. I will meet with you tomorrow, so until then goodbye"

The echo communicator cut off with a static crackle, Zer0 would never figure out this contractor. All his clients always told him their reasons for the hit, but this one wouldn't even give him her name. Zer0 started to climb down and saw Lilith standing out on her balcony in her underwear. Nice. Lilith saw Zer0, who had a holographic 3 over his head.

"Zer0 what the fuck!" she yelled as she pulled down her shirt to cover her lower half

Zer0 chuckled in his metallic monotone voice "You are in a thong, you look strangely satisfied, and you look tired"

"Shut up dude!"

"Hah did you have fun, wait I already know that, mad respect for Roland"

Lilith stormed back into their room, not wanting to provoke Zer0 even further. Zer0 continued to climb down and finally reached his balcony. He climbed into the window and saw Salvador in a drug-induced sleep; it was a miracle that guy could still walk.

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The next day the prisoners were taken back to Pandora Juvenile Prison, where Zer0 was ready to finally meet his contractor. The Crimson Raiders all gathered in the common room of their dormitory too hang out and rest after a long day of trying to survive the trip home with Marcus driving. Axton had started a game of Texas hold 'em with Brick, Mordecai, Luke, Gaige, and Zer0. Maya was reading a book, not something common in prison. Lilith and Roland had been chatting and enjoying their first few days as a couple.

"Alright, see that bet and raise you a pistol," said Salvador

_Crap, I gotta bet something, but I don't have anything, unless…_ thought Axton

"I see that bet and raise you Maya's bra," Axton whispered

All the guys looked with awe at the blue bra Axton threw on the pile. An OMG appeared over Zer0's helmet, Axton smiled at his trump card.

"I would raise that, but I don't think Moxxi wears a bra," grumbled Mordecai

Brick threw his cards over his shoulder, "I fold"

Axton hugged the pot and shoveled it towards himself, laughing maniacally. Suddenly a purple light appeared around Axton and he was lifted into the air. A very pissed off Maya walked over, her eyes glowing blue with anger.

"Haha dude, you're fucked!" laughed Luke

"Hey sweetheart," growled Maya, "I think we should have a talk about betting my bras"

"Ummm, yes mam!"

And with that Axton and Maya had left the room.

"Well crap," said Brick, "now we don't have a dealer. Does anyone here actually know how to count?"

"Is P a number yet?" asked Salvador. Luke shook his head and Salvador sighed in dissapointment. Mordecai raised his hand for a bit, considered it, then put his hand down. Zer0 looked at his four-fingered hand and tried to count them. He counted four, but figured he must be off because everyone told him people have five fingers.

"I'll deal for you,"

The five turned around and saw a girl with black hair and tattoos, just like Lilith and Maya's.

"Do you know how to count?" asked Luke

"Sure do, give me the deck," the girl responded

She shuffled the deck then passed out the cards to each of the players. "Alright, starting bet is this dead parakeet I found outside!" said Brick excitedly

"Dude that's nasty, nobody wants that!" Luke yelled in disgust

Mordecai laughed, "I'll raise you this thing I found Bloodwing eating!

Mordecai slapped a half dead midget on the table and smiled with glee.

"I'll raise you this robot I found," said Salvador. He reached under the table and pulled out a blue robot labeled 'J1MMY J3NK1N5'

"I will see your bet, and I will raise you a knife, it is a kunai," Zer0 threw the dagger onto the table where it lodged itself in the midget.

The mysterious girl looked uncomfortable with these… interesting bets, but she decided to just go with it. "I'll raise you guys a, uh, RPG?"

The girl swiped the rocket launcher that was next to Salvador, crossed out his name, then put it on the table. Everyone stared at the thing like it was made of solid gold. "Fuck this man," Luke folded

"Eh Bloodwing will probably bring in another midget soon,"

"Eh I don't need it, I already got a launcher just like it!"

The girl smiled and turned to Brick and Zer0, who held their hand. Brick got up and walked out of the room. A couple seconds later, he came back holding a Clap Trap steward bot.

"Dude, where'd you get the clap trap?" asked Mordecai

"I found the ting while we were in New Haven and it kinda just followed me here I guess," answered Brick

Zer0 shook his head and folded, all that was left was Brick and the girl. The girl pulled a small duffel bag out from her luggage and placed it on the table. When she unzipped it, the bag literally almost burst with cash. Everyone at the table's jaw dropped at the sight of that much money, it was at least double the amount they had won in the under dome! Brick started to sweat and look from side to side while the girl just smiled confidently. Brick decided it wasn't worth it and folded, the girl had been there for one hour and she had just shown up half the guys in their group.

"Damn chica, que es tu nombre?" asked Salvador

The girl smiled and said, "My name is Angel, and I'm going to be rooming with you guys from now on"

"So did you big boys lose all your money already?" asked Lilith as she walked over to the table.

"I gotta go," said Luke, hastily leaving the room

Brick nodded "Later,"

Lilith rolled her eyes continued, "as I was saying, who is the new girl that just kicked your asses?"

"Angel," said Zer0, who seemed to be carefully studying her

Lilith looked at the girl's tattoos and her eyes widened, "Are you a siren also?"

Angel smiled and nodded back.

"Damn," said Mordecai, "six sirens in the world and half of them are in the same prison"

"So what can you do?" asked Salvador

"Watch," Angel's eyes started to glow and the once dysfunctional clap trap unit sprung into life

"HELLO PRISONERS! I am CL..." but suddenly shut back down

"Sorry," said Angel, "you don't want to hear that funny little robot talk"

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A couple hours later, most of the Crimson Raiders had fallen asleep. Angel looked around to make sure no one saw her, and once she saw the cost was clear, she snuck into the common room. Once she thought she was alone she pulled out her echo device.

"So you're my client," said Zer0

Angel turned and smiled, "You aren't speaking in haiku"

"It's too late at night, I am so very tired, haikus aren't easy"

Angel laughed softly and then asked, "So how did you know that I'm your contractor?"

"You may want to invest in a voice changer,"

"Duly noted"

"Why'd you hire me," asked Zer0, "why do you want Handsome Jack killed, what'd he do to you?"

"That's just between Jack and I, all you need to do is draw him out of hiding and kill him," answered Angel, "I will be living with you as an intern studying the criminal mind and you will be my test subject. We will have meetings everyday starting tomorrow where we will make fake progress and plan the assassination, until then just pretend like nothing is even happening"

Zer0 nodded to Angel and a smiley emote appeared over his head. Angel grabbed a water from the fridge and turned to him and said, "Good night Zer0,"

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The next day, after class, Zer0 headed over to the criminal psychology center where he saw Angel talking to a tall heavyset boy, probably another intern. Zer0 decided to turn invisible and listen in on the conversation, it was a bit of a force of habit.

"Are you sure you wanna be living with those criminals Ang? A pretty girl like you shouldn't be hanging out with a crowd like that"

Angel rolled her eyes and said, "Yes, I'm sure Duke. Many of these 'criminals' are just misunderstood and lost. Unlike most here I'm going to help them instead of subjecting them to horrible tests."

Duke smiled and shook his head, "Whatever babe, just call me up when you realize that this ain't no place for a cute little girl and need a man to defend you."

"Yes Duke, I'll keep that in mind…" grumbled Angel

Zer0 decided to make his appearance and appeared in front of the two. Duke screamed and grabbed for his firearm, but before he could Angel slapped it out of his hand.

"Duke," she scolded, "this is my test subject Zer0"

Duke glared at Zer0 and said, "you better be careful freak, next time Angel might not be there to save you"

"I could say the same, you don't want to provoke me, you would regret it" responded Zer0, feeling annoyed by Duke's confident attitude

"What'd this punk say!" Duke lunged at Zer0 but was stopped by Angel

"That's enough you two," yelled Angel, "Duke, don't you have some horrible and immoral experiment to attend to?"

Duke sneered at Zer0 then stormed off. Angel gave Zer0 and annoyed look, to which Zer0 just shrugged.

"You know I need you alive for this right?"

"I apologize, he was getting on my nerves, he was cocky"

Angel rolled her eyes and grabbed Zer0 by the arm and pulled him into her makeshift office. She sat him down on the couch and pulled out a couple of notes and a pen. Zer0 noticed Angel's hair was up in a bun and she had glasses on today, she looked much more sophisticated, it was a good look. She sat down in her large swivel chair and opened up her book.

"So Zer0, before we start talking about your assignment I actually have to take notes on you or else it will raise suspicion," said Angel as she continued to flip to the page she wanted, "so shall we begin?"

Zer0 nodded, signaling her to continue with her analysis.

"Where did you come from, I know you aren't as psychotic as the others but something traumatic must have happened for you to become an assassin."

"I would rather not answer that question,"

"Zer0," said Angel in exasperation, "you have to tell me something to write down"

"I enjoy the thrill, the challenge is why I kill, the rush of the hunt"

Angel wrote down what Zer0 had said and looked up to him, "That's kinda messed up, don't you think?"  
"You gave the target, I do justice for others, not kill in cold blood" responded Zer0, a bit offended about Angel's observation

"Something must have happened to make you want to do things like this, people don't just decide they want to be an assassin" said Angel, trying to dig deeper into the masked hit man

"I don't want to talk about my past, so stop asking" growled Zer0

Angel noticed his hand was dangerously close to his katana, so she decided to drop the subject.

"You have a very metallic and monotone voice, do you feel emotion?"

Zer0 thought for a second and then said, "What kind of feelings, my emotions are controlled, they are not needed"

"But don't you care for others? You do stay in a group after all," asked Angel

"I do care for them, I just do not lose control, mistakes lead to death" answered Zer0

Angel nodded and wrote what he had just said down in her notebook, trying to finish as quickly as possible so they could discuss the assassination. Just as she finished she heard Zer0 ask, "Who was that guy Duke?"

She smiled at him and said, "He's my ex; we went to collage together. The jerk treats women like an item. Plus he couldn't accept that my siren powers made me stronger then him."

"Ten thousand dollars,"

"What?" asked Angel in confusion

"For ten thousand I will kill him without anyone ever knowing"

"NO NO NO!" responded Angel, trying to stop Zer0 from getting in trouble. Zer0 sat down, seemingly disappointed.

Angel shook her head and laughed, "What do you do for fun Zer0, you don't seem to into partying"

"I enjoy my hits, but I like to go crazy, I know how to have fun"

Angel raised her eyebrow and said, "Oh really,"

"Believe it Angel, the Raiders have thrown great parties, they are badass"

"Good," said Angel, "because before we bring Jack down we are going to destroy everything he holds dear. In two days some public representatives will be visiting to inspect Jack's "school". Jack can easily wipe anything unethical under the carpet, but he can't crack down on prisoners in front of them, it would bring attention that he doesn't want. That's why we are going to trash the prison and destroy his reputation under the disguise of a giant party."

"What should I do then, we need someone to start shit, Salvador can help" said Zer0, nodding his head in approval.

"Get Salvador and Moxxi to help start it up, those two seem like the biggest weekend warriors,"

A smiley face appeared over Zer0's helmet as he joked, "Thank you for your help doctor, maybe I can get my life on track with your help"

Angel winked and said, "just not too quickly, kay?"

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"So we must party, it must happen in two days, I need it badly"

Everyone looked at Zer0 as if he had just lost his mind (which was not far from the truth). Roland was the first to break the silence, "sorry Zer0, we're all just a little surprised, that's all"

"Si amigo," said Salvador, "you never seemed like the party type"

Everyone nodded in agreement except Angel. Mordecai got up off the couch and took a swig of whiskey, then said, "Who cares if he usually doesn't party? It sounds like an awesome idea!" Angel smiled and looked around as everyone was nodding and high fiving in agreement, her plan was going perfectly. Zer0 looked over to Angel. She had made the plan clear, once the party has sufficiently distracted Jack Zer0 would sneak in and try to gather all records of illegal experiments that went on inside the prison confines.

"Alright, Zer0 we'll do it," said Roland

Everyone cheered in excitement; they were ready to get so drunk that they could barely remember the night before. _Great_, thought Zer0, _this is actually going more smoothly then I thought, but I should probably tell the raid…_

_Don't tell them Zer0_ a different voice interrupted his train of thoughts

_Wait, how is this possible, you sound exactly like…_

_Angel, that's because it is me. You can't tell anyone else about this plan, this is between you and me._

Zer0 looked over at Angel, who looked over to him and shook her head. Shit, well know there was a girl in their group who could read all his thoughts. Then he realized the true extent of his problem, Angel could see all his secrets and memories too! He had kept his life a secret for a reason; if anyone knew anything about him he would loose the fear he struck into his enemy's hearts, the fear of uncertainty. Also there were things in his past he hadn't quite finished wrestling with, and he didn't know if he ever would.

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Maya was writing in her journal when she heard a knock at the door. She put her book down and walked over. When she opened the door she saw Zer0 standing tall above her. He did not look like he was in a good mood.

"Hey Zer0, what's up?"

"Is Angel in there, I need to speak with her now, it is important" Zer0 said coldly

Maya turned and called over Angel. Angel walked over slowly; she knew why Zer0 was here.

"Come with me Angel, we must chat about something, this talk cannot wait"

The two walked out of the room and over to the lounge area. They sat down on the couch and Zer0 started to glare at Angel. Angel swallowed nervously and said, "I'm sorry about the thought thing. Because you have cybernetic enhancements, I can use phase shift to read your thoughts and memories"

"Why the interview, you could have just read my mind, you knew everything" Zer0 snapped at her. Zer0 went to such lengths to keep himself hidden from others he was frustrated and baffled to have someone crack him open and find everything so quickly.

"I know this has been a shock to you Zer0, and I'm sorry you had to find out like this," apologized Angel, "you have every right to be angry"

Zer0 sighed to himself and looked at Angel. His thoughts would never be safe from this girl, but he could not stay angry with her for some reason. He was losing control of his emotions to her and it scared him to death. "How much do you know, my past is open to you, I am exposed now" asked Zer0

Angel held his hand and began to recite what she knew, "You were born on the planet Shadow-14. Your parents abandoned you as a child, so you had to fend for yourself. Stalkers raised you, teaching the art of stealth and deception. You eventually left to join the Omega Squad in the Crimson Lance. In that group you assassinated your first target, taking his katana as your trophy. You defected from the group after a bad argument with its leader, Athena, and left to become an Assassin for higher, seeking new challenges and more difficult assignments. That is all I can pick out, details are too difficult to read."

Angel looked over to Zer0, who was looking at the ground, trying to think. She didn't know everything, the trials he had endured were still hidden away.

"I was too stupid, I let my emotions out, they took her husband"

Angel looked at him in shock; he was actually opening up to her!

Zer0 continued, "I acted brashly, Athena's fiancée died, it was all my fault"

"How was it you fault?" asked Angel

"A target taunted, I was mad and ran at him, John tried to stop me. I fell for a trap, John ran out to help me up, I lived but he died."  
Zer0 almost cried under his helmet. All his awful memories were flooding back to him, the anger, the sadness, and the shame. Suddenly he felt Angel put her arms around him. He felt warmer and not so alone, maybe Angel genuinely cared about him?

"I'm here for you Zer0, you are sorry for what you did. It's time you forgive yourself," said Angel. She let Zer0 go and got up off the couch. "I'm going to go to bed Zer0, but if you ever need anything, just ask."

Angel walked out and left Zer0 on the couch trying to sort through what had just happened.

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Then next day during lunch Roland noticed Zer0 and Angel were missing from the group. Zer0 was usually always present with the group but lately he and Angel had been skipping out on them for some reason.

"So where's Angel and Zer0?" asked Mordecai with a mouth full of food

"Yeah they haven't been present lately, wonder where they go," speculated Luke

Lilith swallowed her food and said, "maybe they're a thing now, after all they have been spending a lot of time together"

Everyone shook their head in disagreement. Zer0 was many things but he definitely wasn't a romantic.

Maya laughed and said, "I don't even think Zer0 is human, I mean the dude's only four fingers"

"Yeah he never struck me as the dating type" agreed Axton

"Ahem"

Everyone turned around and saw Moxxi sitting on the far end of the table. She winked at Mordecai, causing him to smile goofily, and walked over to the group. She put her arms on Mordecai's shoulders and put her chin on his head.

"How's it going gang? It's been a while since you guys became the underdome's new champions; you barely drop by these days!"

Salvador laughed, "We're the champions! We have nothing left to prove!"

"Yes, about that," Moxxi said reluctantly, "Technically Gaige is still champion because there can only be one. You guys are gonna have to decide among yourselves who gets to become the new champ. Congrats to Gaige though, you're still number one!"

Gaige fist pumped and did a victory dance, while Salvador sat steaming in his chair, chewing on a fork. Salvador swallowed the hunk of metal and started to shoot the air and spew profanities, scaring away many of the others who eating lunch. Moxxi smiled and continued, "So tonight we're gonna have a tournament between all of you, the champion among champions! It'll bring in hoards of people; the crowd will go so wild they will practically beg me to take their money! The show will be a profiting juggernaut! To top it off, winner gets a third of the admission money and gets to be crowned Grand Master Samurai Pimp Champion!"

Axton spit out his drink and sputtered, "A THIRD OF THE ADMISSION!" Everyone was looking around in excitement, imagining all that they could do with that much money. The Raiders looked to Roland for approval, Roland figured what's the worst that could happen? He smiled and said, "Sure, why not, we could use a little excitement. Just make sure it doesn't get to crazy Moxxi"

Moxxi winked at him and pulled out her megaphone, "You think it's crazy now?"

She flipped the device on and screamed into it, "PEOPLE OF PANDORA JUVENILE DETENTION FACILITY, TONIGHT IN THE UNDERDOME THERE WILL BE A CLASH OF THE TITANS, A TOURNAMENT TO END ALL TOURNAMENTS! FOR THE PRICE OF TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS YOU CAN WITNESS THE GROUP OF CHAMPIONS AND OTHER GUESTS DUKE IT OUT TO SEE WHO IS THE TRUE GRAND MASTER SAMURAI PIMP CHAMPION!"

The cafeteria immediately burst to life, students were punching each other, screaming in excitement, and tossing Hyperion robots left and right. With just two sentences and a megaphone, Moxxi had turned the café into a mad house. Roland shook his head, this was going to be an interesting night.

**AN: Hope you guys enjoyed the new chapter! I will get chapter six up as soon as possible. One other thing, leave a comment on who you want to win the tournament and I will take that into consideration.**


	6. Chapter 6

**AN: Hello readers! Two chapters in one day, whew that's efficiency! In this chapter I tried to work on some action writing, seeing as how every good story needs a bit of it!**

** titans vs gods: I figure you and many of the readers are Gaige fans, so I have tried to incorporate her a little more in the story**

**Bubbygum 24: Thanks for the feedback, Zer0, as you can see, will be playing a bigger role as the story goes on**

Chapter Six: Second Rule of Fight Club

Roland prepared himself for the night to come. This was going to be over the top insane, he had never seen such a huge reaction towards a fight tournament. He knew he was one of the best fighters in the whole prison, as far as he could remember he had never actually lost a fight in there. He pulled out his turret digi-struct console and started to work on it so that when the fights rolled around his support was in top condition. Roland pulled out a screwdriver and started to pull apart the box so he could get to the inner circuitry. _Maybe I should add an ammo dispenser while I'm at it_, he thought, you can never have enough ammunition. He began to code an ammo creation function; he knew a bullet well enough to have one digi-struct. The project was going well at first until he came across a pretty large speed bump, he didn't know the odds and ends of digi-structing. The turret was able to put together the blueprints for each type of bullet, but could not conjure them. He hit the box with the wrench in frustration and went back to trying to figure out the problem.

"You need some help there?" asked a young girl's voice

Roland turned and saw Gaige standing behind him, giving him her enthusiastic smile.

"I can help you with the digi-struct function, I'm a bit of a technology wizard" she offered

Roland looked at the turret digi-struct box and turned back to Gaige and said, "Yeah, I guess so"

Gaige pushed Roland out of the way and immediately went to work on the device. Sparks flew out of the turret box and a couple of puffs of smoke shot out, making Roland very nervous. A couple of explosions and fires later, Gaige jumped out of the chair triumphantly and declared she was finished. Roland looked at his turret box for a couple of seconds, and then threw it out onto the floor. The turret deployed, but something was different, the shield around the turret was larger then before and a slot poked out of the gun's back. Roland looked more closely at the slot, trying to see if it was the dispenser he was trying to create. Suddenly, a pack of shotgun ammunition popped out, almost hitting Roland in the face. Roland jumped back in surprise and looked at Gaige, who was grinning widely. He got up and patted Gaige on the back, "Well I'll be damned, you got it!"

Gaige rolled her eyes and said, "Of course I did; I'm kind of a genius! Besides, it's the same digi-struct technology that summons Death Trap for me."

"When something digi-structs it needs another device to signal it, my turret uses this box and Zer0's katana uses its hilt, what does Death Trap use?" asked Roland

Gaige pointed to her robotic arm and answered, "This mechanical arm is what signals Death Trap to digi-struct, pretty sweet huh?"

Roland looked at her incredibly advanced robot arm, he couldn't believe a fifteen year old had managed to make herself something like this with one arm and while she was bleeding from losing the original. This girl was undoubtedly the greatest engineer he had ever met.

"So," he asked, "why are you in prison, you're so young?"

"I accidently killed one of my classmates!" she responded, not seeming to be depressed about it at all.

"And how did you manage that?"

Gaige thought for a second, then answered, "Well this girl Marcie is a real bitch, but a rich bitch. Every year in the science fair she beats me because her dad buys all the judges, and it annoyed the hell out of me. One year I built DT, hoping that it would be so undeniably, unbelievably cool that the judges would have to pick me. But of course I forgot, Marcie's dad is rich as God. He bought out the judges AGAIN and I got third prize to Marcie and some kid's potato battery. Marcie was gloating and laughing at me and she pushed me. After that things got a bit… messy."

Roland raised his eyebrow and asked curiously, "Messy how?"

"Messy as in Death Trap slashed Marcie with his claws and she exploded like EVERYWHERE"

"Oh," said Roland, "That kind of messy"

Gaige laughed "but I'm over it now, plus people appreciate my skills a little more in here then they did on the outside, so I'm perfectly fine where I am!"

Gaige was one interesting kid. Roland picked up his turret box and holstered it on his belt, then cleaned up his work materials. Gaige waived goodbye and walked out, probably to go bug Maya as she so enjoyed doing. Roland finished packing up his tools when he heard a knock at the door. He turned and saw Salvador and Zer0 standing there with huge grins (or at least Salvador was grinning). He gave them a 'what the fuck are you two up to' look as he grabbed his toolbox.

"So you know how anyone who wins the tournament gets a ridiculous amount of prize money?" asked Salvador

"Yeah," Roland answered uneasily, he was nervous about where this was going

"Do you remember, I asked about a party, one of epic size?" asked Zer0, adding on to Roland's uneasiness. These two were almost always up to no good.

Salvador continued, "Well we were thinking, what if when one of us wins, we use the prize money to throw the most insane mob party EVER"

Roland sighed in relief, last time Salvador asked about money it ended up resulting in a skag fighting rink and a horrible midget rebellion that ended up killing half the prison. The reason it got so out of control was Jack thought the whole thing was hilarious, but then one of the midgets took a whizz on his statue and the revolution ended pretty quickly.

"Alright Salvador, I'll do it. Just don't give the midgets sixty packs of quick meds again, I don't think their bodies could handle it."

"What?" protested Salvador, "I took tons of drugs as a kid and I turned out fine!"

Everyone stared at him as if he had just proclaimed his love for all things Handsome Jack. Salvador looked around, grumbled, "point taken", then walked out of the room with Zer0 behind him. Roland walked out and locked the door behind him and saw Lilith walking ahead down the hallway.

"Hey Lil!" he yelled as he ran after her

Lilith turned and winked at him, "What's up Roland?"

Roland put his arm around her and asked, "Are you ready for the tournament tonight? It's gonna be quite the rumble."

"I should have known better than to think we had won," laughed Lilith

"Well it's definitely going to make Moxxi a ton of money, and hopefully one of us if we win"

"I don't know what I'd do with that money," said Lilith, "What are you doing?"  
Roland remembered what he, Salvador, and Zer0 had agreed upon, "I would use it to throw a massive victory party, maybe invite every inmate in the prison"

"Wow, that'll be one hell of a party"

"Yeah, it sounds pretty cool and hopefully won't get too out of control"

Lilith pecked Roland on the cheek and said, "Well I'm gonna go out for a walk, I'll see ya later"

"Alright, see ya Lilith," Roland said as he waved to her

Lilith winked to him and walked out, she needed some fresh air. She opened the door and started to walk towards Marcus's technically illegal but still good weapons and ammunition store. On her way there she saw Luke sharpening his bowie knife near the Hyperion flagpole. Lilith decided he had probably gotten over what had happened and decided to go say, he was pretty much a grown up after all. As she walked over Luke looked up and gave her a smile, he was still a bit mad with her about what she had done but he decided to be mature.

"What's up Lilith, I didn't expect to see you out here?"

Lilith sat down next to him and said, "well I need to pick up some ammo and weapons for tonight's fight, gotta be prepared if I wanna win"

Luke nodded, "Well I'm out here doing pretty much the same, the matches in the underdome is all anyone is talking about right now!"

"Yeah, Moxxi sure knows how to rile up the crowd"

Luke smiled and joked, "yes she does, yes she does"

Lilith laughed gave him a friendly punch in the shoulder "You know she's taken right?"

"Yeah I know, Mordecai would sick that big ass bird on me if I ever tried anything anyways," the two laughed together, it was just like old times. Luke finished up sharpening his knifed and flipped it into the air and caught it right in it's holster. He then pulled out his bow. The bow was jet black with a red string; it had a scope attached to the side and a quiver attached to the side. This bow was given to Luke by his dad; he practiced almost everyday with it and had become an incredible archer. It had served him many times, helping him steal food for he and Lilith when they were traveling together. Luke started to clean it, making sure every bit of it was spotless.

"Have you used your bow once while we were here?" asked Lilth

Luke answered, "no, I felt like the minute I pulled it out it would get stolen by some idiot, but this tournament might be a good time to break it out"

Luke raised the bow and brought the string back. He took a second, breathed, and then let the arrow fly. The arrow whizzed up and straight through three rakks flying above them, hitting every one straight through the neck. Luke smiled as the three rakks fell from the sky.

"Hey Lilith, check this out"

Lilith took her eyes off the falling rakks and saw Luke click a button on the small quiver. An arrow suddenly digi-structed inside of it, he had created the perfect arrow retrieval system!

Luke smiled at her surprised look, "pretty cool huh? I figured out how to get arrow's I've already shot to digi-struct back to me. I saw how Roland and Axton's turrets could do the same, so I figured I'd give it a shot"

"That's really cool!" said Lilith, "I wish I had a weapon like that"

"I hear Tediore is making a new line of weapons that you can throw like a grenade and they'll digi-struct back into you hands" suggested Luke

"Well I'll go check that out when I'm buying a new weapon. I'll see you around Luke"

Lilith walked away, feeling fairly happy that she and Luke's friendship was back on track.

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Angel had just finished up her appointment with Zer0 and was gathering her things when Duke walked up to her and gave her a cocky smile. She looked up and glared at him, "What do you want?"

"I hear your prisoner friends are going to have a huge fight tournament tonight, you know fight clubs aren't allowed," sneered Duke with his usual cocky smile

"And what are you going to do? Report them to Jack, because I doubt he cares if the prisoners are fighting one another," snapped Angel

"Actually, I'm gonna fight in it. Those prisoners need to be taught a lesson and I'm the perfect person to do so"

Angel rolled her eyes and said, "sometimes I wonder why you're even a psychiatrist if all you want to do his harm these people"

Duke laughed, "psychiatrist is a very loose term these days, I prefer regulator"

Angel grumbled to herself as she walked out of the room, leaving Duke feeling proud that he had gotten to her. Angel wasn't against the tournament, she actually thought she might try and fight as well. She had checked the death rate inside and outside the arena and apparently Moxxi enforced a 'I don't want to deal with the death fines' rule so the rate of death inside the arena was actually lower then the outside. It was shocking, but true. Angel made it back to the dorm and found that all the Raiders were preparing themselves in the common room. Everyone looked to her as if she had midget remains on her coat.

"You better get prepared, the matches start in an hour," said Roland as he cleaned his guns. Crap, she had totally forgotten about the time factor. Maya smiled and walked over to her, "Don't worry I'll help set you up, us sirens gotta stick together!"

Angel smiled gratuitously and walked over to a table with the two other girls preparing their arsenal. Gaige looked up and gave Angel a friendly smile, then tossed her an assault rifle, "here take this!"

"Jesus, how do you people get a hold of all these weapons?" asked Angel

Lilith answered, "Jack doesn't keep very tight security so Zer0 usually sneaks in and hooks us up"

"You're gonna like that one," said Gaige, "It's a Maliwan Storm V5, it does nice electrical damage, and I know how you sirens like your elemental"

Lilith and Maya nodded in agreement, Angel had to admit she always found interest in these types of weapons. Angel loaded the rifle and holstered it on her back; she then grabbed a few grenades and a good shield. She figured that she could use her phase shift to tamper with other's equipment while in battle and power up her own. Over at the boy's table they were boasting about their weaponry.

"That's a nice bow yah got there," Mordecai told Luke, "it's old school, I like it!"

"Yeah, uses plasma arrows and rocket technology to help with distance and speed plus it has a scope that can zoom," boasted Luke

Mordecai laughed, "I take back what I said about it being old school, but it's still cool"

"Hey amigos, check this baby out!" Everyone turned their attention to Salvador, who was holding a Vladof Revolution 85, it was an efficient weapon, but something was different about it.

"Uhhh dude," asked Axton, "are those human teeth glued to the side"

Everyone looked and saw on the side off the gun written in teeth was "equal bullets for all".

Salvador smiled and said, "Brick and I got these from other inmates, and we thought it would be a great addition to the gun!"

All the guys looked away in disgust, except for Salvador and Brick, who seemed confused as to why everyone was so grossed out. Zer0 was intensely working on his katana, making sure his most prized possession was razor sharp before the tournament. After everyone had finished getting their gear together they all met outside.

"All right Raiders," commanded Roland, "lets get going!"

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All the contestants had gathered up in the underdome's player lounge while they waited for the matches to begin. It seems that many had taken this as an opportunity to prove themselves to the others and try to move up in the prison's vicious social structure. Lilith looked around to try to analyze the competition; there was one guy with a shield with three midgets tied onto it. Lovely. Overall it seemed like the only real threats were her fellow Crimson Raiders and a buff guy with a blond flat top cut, sunglasses, and a red tank top.

Suddenly, a Handsome Jack's voice came over the intercom, "Bandits, I know what you're doing. Stop before I come down and kill every one of you!"

Everyone looked at each other in confusion, Jack sounded like he was going through reverse puberty. Moxxi laughed over the intercom, "I'm totally kidding, it's me, Moxxi! First round starts in ten, Zer0 vs Mad Maw and his Merry Midgets!

The guy with the shield got up and walked into the arena, followed soon by Zer0. An image of the two appeared on the T.V.s in the lounge, they had live video feed of each battle.

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"EVERYONE, ARE YOU READY!"

The crowd roared with excitement. Moxxi smiled and yelled into the megaphone, "Our first round is the battle between Zer0, the cybernetic ninja with a badass katana, vs Mad Maw, the nomad protected by metal and meat! COMPETITORS, ARE YOU READY!" Zer0 nodded and Mad Maw let out a battle cry. "3…2…1…FIGHT!"

Mad Maw rushed at Zer0 with his shield of screaming midgets, shooting his SMG from behind protection. Zer0 ran towards him with his katana ready. Once they got within range of each other the battle of melee began. Mad Maw tried to bash Zer0, but he just back flipped away from the shield. Zer0 tried to strafe Maw, but the nomad was surprisingly quick, he managed to always keep his shield in front of Zer0's attacks; Zer0 couldn't manage to land a hit on him. While Zer0 was strafing Maw swept with his foot and tripped Zer0, causing him to hit the ground in a daze. Mad Maw saw his chance and raised his shield to deliver the finishing blow. He brought down the shield as hard as he could on Zer0 and the crowd gasped. Zer0's body was limp; he looked unconscious. Moxxi sighed in disappointment and said, "The winner is Ma…" but she was cut off. Zer0's body disappeared and suddenly from behind Mad Maw, Zer0 appeared in the air coming down with his sword to strike. He brought down the katana with blazing speed, knocking down Mad Maw, causing him to faint. Zer0 stood on Mad Maw's enormous body and raised his sword in the air. The crowd cheered wildly and Moxxi smiled down at Zer0. "The kid can put on a show cant he, the winner is ZER0!"

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**A/N: I am only including battles with the Raiders in them, the matches did not occur in succession**

"Our next match is a battle of Siren vs Soldier, a match made in hell. Axton, the glory seeking commando with his sabre turret, against Maya, a siren with incredible telekinetic abilities!"

The two entered the arena and shook hands.

"Looking forward to this honey," joked Axton

Maya smirked, "Likewise sweetheart"

"3…2…1…FIGHT!"

Maya threw a slag orb at Axton, but he rolled out of the way and fired a couple shots at her. In retaliation, Maya jumped behind cover while firing of an explosive pistol. The explosions knocked Axton back, but he wasn't out yet. He looked out from his cover and saw the rock Maya had dived behind. Axton ran to a cement roadblock while shooting rounds at Maya, who had jumped over the rock and started to fire a SMG at him. Axton ducted under the fire and decided it was time to break out the turret. He tossed the sabre turret from under cover and watched as the gun assembled itself and started to fire at Maya. Maya ducted and weaved, trying to avoid the turret's spot on accuracy. She decided enough was enough and phase locked the turret, causing it to stay suspended in the air. Maya pulled out an acid machine gun and fired at the turret, breaking it. _Now to deal with Axton_, she thought, but before she could turn she felt Axton's gun against the back of her head.

"Fuck," she said as she dropped her weapon and kicked it away

Axton laughed and said, "Looks like the better of the couple won"

Maya rolled her eyes, she hated to admit it but her idiot boyfriend had just outsmarted her. Suddenly she had an idea. Maya turned to Axton and kissed him full on, taking him by surprise. When she finished Axton gave her a cocky smile and gloated, "I'm glad you took your loss so well!"

"Don't be so sure," said Maya with a confidant smile

Axton suddenly realized something; he didn't have a gun. He checked himself but still couldn't find it. He heard Maya whistle and looked over to her; she had his gun in her hands pointed at him. "Ouch," yelled Moxxi, "this match was won by a dirty trick! I love it! Give a hand to Maya!" Unfortunately someone from the crowd threw a real hand.

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"Our next fight is a battle between psycho and sniper, lets hear it for Salvador and Mordecai!"

"Get ready to eat lead bird boy!" taunted Salvador

Mordecai smiled and held out his arm. Bloodwing swooped down and landed on his wrist.

"3…2…1…"

Salvador cut Moxxi off and screamed, "FIGHT!" He pulled out two vladof miniguns and started to spray at Mordecai. Mordecai dived under cover and yelled, "Bloodwing, sick em!" The bird screeched and took to the sky. Mordecai pulled out a revolver and started to fire from behind cover. Salvador laughed maniacally as he tore apart Mordecai's cover. Suddenly he heard a screech and saw Bloodwing diving towards him. Salvador turned fearlessly towards the bird's incoming talons and roared. Right before the Bloodwing could reach him, Salvador reared back and punched Mordecai's bird straight in the beak. Bloodwing was knocked back into the wall. Salvador turned and ran at Mordecai, but while taking out Bloodwing, Salvador gave Mordecai enough time to set up a shot. Mordecai shot Salvador twice in the shoulder and once in the leg. Much to the snipers' dismay, Salvador continued to charge him with a bloodthirsty scream. Before Mordecai could reload for another shot Salvador had him pinned and started to punch him mercilessly. Afraid for her boyfriend's safety Moxxi called out "That's enough Salvador, you win!" Salvador helped Mordecai up and turned to the cheering crowd and game them a victory howl.

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"Our next match is a battle of the sirens, Angel, the siren with a mind for technology, and Lilith, the phase walking beauty!"

Lilith walked on and blew a kiss to the crowd, starting a brawl in the stands over whom she was aiming at. Angel walked on and smiled nervously and waved to the crowd.

"3…2…1…FIGHT!"

Lilith pulled out a SMG and started to unload while running towards Angel. Angel dodged and started to strafe Lilith while firing her Maliwan assault rifle. The two girls continued to dodge each other's volleys until Angel decided to break out her siren powers. Her blue eyes started to glow white and she suddenly disappeared. Lilith stopped, shocked at what had just happened. Suddenly Angel appeared behind her and let loose a forceful kick, knocking Lilith over. Lilith decided to use her powers to, so right when Angel brought down the butt of her gun, Lilith phase walked right through her. Angel shivered; she didn't like the feeling of someone walking right through you. Lilith swung her gun at Angel, who dodged and tried to tack her, but ended up going right through Lilith. Lilith turned and fired at Angel, who digi-structed right behind her and punched Lilith in the neck. Lilith turned and caught Angel's next jab and threw her to the ground. Angel rolled and jumped up, but suddenly she felt something strange in her stomach. She looked down and saw a purple outline of Lilith's hand protruding from it. "Surrender or I turn solid," said Lilith. _Well played_, thought Angel as she dropped her gun. "Nice fight girls, the winner is Lilith!"

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"The next fight will be between Brick, the mountain of Muscle, and Luke, the crafty archer!

The two gathered in the middle, Brick put on his dusters and cracked his knuckles. Luke notched an arrow and pulled back the string of his bow.

"3…2…1…FIGHT!"

Brick charged Luke and let fly a barrage of punches. Luke jumped over and onto Brick's shoulders with the reflexes of a mongoose. Brick tried to swat Luke off, but he was too quick. Luke kicked off Brick's face and landed behind the behemoth. Luke ran towards Brick at full speed, but was met by punch packing the force of a train. Luke flew into a boulder and barely got up from that one blow. Luke realized that he couldn't let Brick hit him once, or it was over. He kept his distance, constantly jumping backwards to avoid Brick's powerful jabs. He let an arrow fly, which lodged itself in Brick's knee. Brick looked down at his knee, and then looked at Luke with anger. "You motherfucker," he said, boiling with rage. Brick charged full speed at Luke, who gracefully jumped over the raging bull. Luke turned in mid air and let fly an explosive arrow, which exploded right next to Brick. The titan swayed back and forth, then with an earsplitting howl, fell unconscious. "LUKE WINS!" yelled Moxxi, who was hanging upside down from her pole.

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"Now, for the last match before the semifinals, Gaige the Mechromancer, vs Roland, the soldier with a plan!"

Gaige waved to the crowd, eager for a chance to win her title back. Everyone she had fought up until now was fairly easy, but now for the challenge. Roland stayed stoic; he wasn't one to showboat.

"3…2…1…FIGHT!"

Gaige summoned Death Trap, who immediately rushed at Roland with its claws extended. Roland ducked under its swipe and tackled the robot. Gaige fired a few shots, which Roland managed to dodge; Gaige was not the best shot. Roland started to return fire, but Death Trap quickly threw itself in front of Gaige, tanking the hits for her. The robot shot a laser at Roland, who barely managed to duck under cover before he was fried. Roland threw out his turret, which started to fire at Death Trap and Gaige. Roland picked up the ammo his turret dispensed and began to start firing on the two along with his turret. Gaige found she and Death Trap were pinned down, so she decided to break out her secret weapon.

"Hey Roland!" she called out from behind cover

Roland called back to her, "What?"  
"DIGI-STRUCT EMP!"

Gaige pressed a button on her robotic arm and Roland's turret immediately began to undigi-struct short circuit.

"Hah!" laughed Gaige, "lets see how you fight without your turret"

Roland looked at her in confusion and said, "wait, won't that shut off Death trap too?" As if on cue, Death Trap disappeared into the ground in a flash of light. "Crap," said Gaige, "didn't quite think that one through…"

Roland ran over to her and picked her up by her collar and put his pistol up to her head. "Umm, due to a slight error in judgment on Gaige's part, Roland is the winner!"

Gaige shook hands with Roland, and then skipped back to the lounge area. What a strange girl.

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After the semifinals there was a break before the championship match. Lilith and Roland were sitting with Zer0, who had managed to make it to the final round. Roland was trying to help Zer0 get pumped, "C'mon man you got this! This guy Duke, he's no match for you!" _So that's what that blonde guy's name was_, thought Lilith as she helped Roland attend to his wounds. A fight with a cyborg named Wilhelm had gone south and Roland ended up losing with a couple of burns and a sprained wrist. Zer0 was calming himself before the battle; he had met Duke before with Angel and was ready to put that bastard in his place. Angel walked over to Zer0 with a concerned look on her face.

"Be careful Zer0, Duke has trained with the best of the best and is no pushover. He isn't all bark and no bite."

Zer0 stood up and said, "Duke will suffer now, he will feel my sword's judgment, the jerk will not win"

Angel smiled "good luck Zer0,"

Zer0 nodded and walked out into the arena, ready to fight for the reward money and his contract. Duke walked out and laughed, "I can't believe little haiku man actually made it here, guess I'll have the pleasure of beating the ever loving shit out of you!"

"Watch your tongue bastard, or I will cut it off you, don't mess with me ass"

Duke sneered at him and said, "First I'm gonna trash you, then Angel can stop this stupid obsession she has with you"

"ARE YOU READY FOR THE FINAL FIGHT, THE BATTLE YOU HAVE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR, THE CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH, DUKE VS ZER0!"

The crowd cheered in excitement as Moxxi danced up on her pillar. Moxxi turned to the fighters and said, "good luck you two,"

"3!"

Zer0 drew his sword

"2!"

Duke pulled out his shotgun

"1!"

They both growled at each other, ready to tear the other apart

"FIGHT!"

Duke shot at Zer0, but missed because of Zer0's speed. He continued to fire at Zer0, who was running towards him, sidestepping each shot. Zer0 swung his sword for the first strike, but was met by the bayonet of Duke's gun. The two where in blade lock, trying to break each other's block. Suddenly, Zer0 faded away; it was a hologram! Zer0 struck Duke from behind with his sword, then tried for another hit but was caught in the side of the head by the butt of Duke's shotgun. Zer0 stumbled back, but quickly recovered, dodging Duke's shot. He jumped on top of one of the cover rocks and continued to jump from one to another, wasting Duke's ammo. Duke got frustrated and threw a grenade at Zer0, blowing up his platforms. Zer0 used his ninja like reflexes to escape the blast and launch himself towards Duke in a lunge. He slashed Duke across the chest, and then ducked under his fist. The assassin brought his katana up, cutting a vertical gash into Duke. Duke roared with anger and yelled "ENOUGH!" He grabbed Zer0 by the neck and threw him on the ground. Before Zer0 could get up, Duke unloaded his shotgun into his chest. Zer0 was obviously out, but that didn't stop Duke. "DUKE YOU WIN, THAT'S ENOUGH!" screamed Moxxi, not wanting to Zer0 to die, "THAT'S ENOUGH STOP IT!" Duke continued to unload until Zer0 stopped twitching and then turned to address the crowd, who was booing and yelling at him. "LET THIS BE AN EXAMPLE!" he yelled, "A LESSON TO ALL WHO APPOSE HYPERION! YOU WILL END UP LIKE ZER0, DEAD AND HUMILIATED!" While Duke was delivering his speech, no one noticed Zer0 was crawling towards his sword, leaving a trail of blood. "ZER0 IS DEAD, AND SOON ALL OF YOU WILL…" he was cut off by a katana sticking out of his chest in an explosion of blood. "Assassins never die!" coughed Zer0 as he pushed his blade into Duke's body. Duke cried out in agony and collapsed on the ground, and soon Zer0 followed. Angel ran out to him with fear in her heart. She shook his body, but got no response. "Zer0, ZER0! Damnit answer me!" The Crimson Raiders all ran on the field to see their injured comrade. Maya pushed everyone out of the way and put her hand on his neck. "Well," whimpered Lilith, "how is he?"

Maya got up and said, "If everyone can get me medication, bandages, and a place to put him he may be able to make it!" Everyone rushed of to go find the items Maya had just listed; even the psychos tried rob others to find medicine.

Maya looked down at Zer0 and reassured him, "don't worry kid you're gonna be fine"

"C'mon Zer0, you have to make it, please don't die…" cried Angel as she held up his head.

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Zer0 woke up on the couch in the Crimson Raider dorm common room. He tried to get up, but felt a throbbing pain in his head. Shit, things had really gotten out of control down there. He looked down at his chest and saw that it was wrapped in medical tape and bandages. His head felt like it was about to split open, God he felt like crap. He tried to assess the damage, but his head hurt so badly he couldn't think straight.

"Oh my God, you're awake!"

Zer0 turned and felt Angel's arms wrap around him in an embrace. Normally he would be fine, but his multiple broken ribs made it excruciatingly painful. Zer0 cried out in pain, which caused Angel to jump off him immediately. Angel blushed sheepishly and said, "Sorry, I guess I was just a little excited that you made it out alive…"

"The intelligence, I can't steal it in two nights, I have failed Angel"

Angel smiled at him forgivingly, "Zer0 we can always come up with a new plan, I'm just glad your alive"

"Well look whose up!"

Axton walked into the room along with the rest of the Crimson Raiders.

"Holy crap Zer0," yelled Gaige, "you gave us all a heart attack!"

Everyone nodded in agreement. Roland stepped forward and said, "Good to have you back with the living soldier,"

Salvador was sniffling "I thought I had lost you amigo, who else would I piss off the midgets with?"

"Just stay off your feet for a couple weeks and the medicine should heal you, also…" Maya hesitated to say the rest

A question mark emote popped up over Zer0's head. Everyone started to look at the floor awkwardly; trying not to make I contact with him. Finally, Moxxi stepped forward and said, "look hon, you were pretty broken, so we had Gaige make a couple, er, implants"

An exclamation point popped up over Zer0. Gaige rolled her eyes and sighed, "geez guys all I did was modify his heart and lungs, I didn't make him a walking explosive. But now that I think about it, that would have been AWSOME!"

Zero sighed in relief, he knew Gaige was a technological genius, but what went on in her head worried even him.

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Zer0 woke up in the middle of the night; the pain in his chest had woken him up. He looked up and saw Angel bringing a bowl of soup over to him. She put the soup on the table next to the couch and sat down next to him.

"How long have you stayed, you need not worry for me, I will be O.K." said Zer0, trying to make her stop worrying about him so much

Angel sighed, "I've been here all night, and I plan to continue doing just that. I feel really bad about what happened with Duke. If I hadn't introduced him to you, you wouldn't have been a target."

"It was not you fault, Duke's actions were his own fault, do not blame yourself" Zer0 reassured Angel

"I know; he was a bastard. Oh, I made some soup for you, just in case you were hungry." Zer0 nodded in thanks and picked up the bowl of soup. He was about to eat when he noticed Angel staring at him. He displayed a question mark, and Angel immediately broke her stare and started to blush. "Sorry Zer0," she said, "I've just never seen you without your helmet and I was curious to see what your face looks like. Zer0 laughed and his helmet opened up just a crack, looking like an open jaw. Zer0 poured down the soup and his helmet closed up, leaving Angel disappointed.

"Have you ever taken off that mask?" asked Angel

Zer0 thought for a second, and then answered, "I took it off once but it was a huge mistake, I will never repeat"

Angel tried to read Zer0's mind, but the secret of his identity was locked down and unreachable. She turned and saw Zer0 had fallen asleep with the bowl on his chest. She smiled to herself and picked up the bowl and went back to her room. She needed some sleep herself.

**A/N: Hope you guys enjoyed this action packed chapter! I invite reviews to help improve my action sequence writing, I'll say it once and I'll say it again, this is not just for fun, but a learning experience for me. I thought the events at the end were pretty good, I tried to flesh out the relation between Angel and Zer0 some.**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Hello readers, I hope you've been enjoying the story so far! This chapter I am especially proud of, I've added some new elements to the story that... well you'll just have to read to find out.**

** Smiley117- Don't worry, as you will see in this chapter I have my reasons for isolating Luke from the team some**

** RisingS- I will try to incorporate the MayaxAxton elements a little more in the story. Thanks for the suggestion!**

Chapter 7: Fallout

Three days had passed since Duke's death and Zer0's injury. In that short amount of time, things had changed a lot. Jack decided to shut down the underdome after losing a Hyperion employee to its madness, much to Moxxi's despair. This crackdown gained a huge amount of approval from the public, making Jack look like even more of a hero. Larger profits meant more slag experiments, more and more people started to dissapear into the eridium labs, never to come out. Roland had put everyone on high watch, trying to make sure no one was abducted for these horrible experiments. He had turned the dorm into a fortress; no one could get in or out. The Crimson Raiders skipped out on class so that no one could be pulled in the middle of a lesson and experimented on; they took no chances. Moxxi started to room with the Raiders since her old home had been the underdome, which, unfortunately, had been burned to the ground.

Lilith walked into Roland's room and found him working vigorously trying to figure out a guard schedule during the night.

"Roland," she said, trying to get his attention. Roland didn't hear her; he was to wrapped up in his work to notice his girlfriend. Lilith frowned and tried again, "Roland!"

Roland bolted upward and spun around; "Lilith, whew, don't sneak up on me like that,"  
Lilith smiled and strutted over towards him, her hips swaying sexily. "You know, it's been a while since you and I got a little… dirty," she purred as she ran her hand down his neck.

Roland shook his head and said, "Sorry Lilith, but I've got to get these shifts worked out before the end of today. With Jack abducting all these people you can never be too careful."

Lilith crossed her arms and pouted, _well time to step it up a notch_. Lilith wrapped her arms around Roland and loosened one of the straps of her tank top, just how Moxxi had taught her. She leaned forward making sure Roland could see her cleavage and whispered in his ear, "C'mon sweetie, you deserve a break from your _hard_ work. Come with me…"

Roland's will was obviously breaking; he was sweating like crazy. "I, I, uhhh," he started to stutter as he loosened his collar. Lilith smiled; she had him right where she wanted. "Roland I know you want to, we'll just be gone for a few minutes,"  
Roland gave her a smile and said, "Oh, it's gonna be longer then that,"

The two walked out of the room hand in hand.

Axton, Salvador, and Brick were all hanging out in the boy's room when suddenly in burst Roland and Lilith.

"Ummm, hey Roland and Lilith, what's…"

Roland cut off Axton, "out, now"

Before the three knew it, they were locked out of their room.

"This better not fuckin happen on my bed," grumbled Axton

Salvador still looked a little peeved about what happened, but decided to just grab something to eat while the two were finishing up. As Salvador walked away, Brick said, "I think I'm gonna go chat with Mordecai about explosions…"

"How's it going champ?" Axton turned and saw Maya with her hand on her hip standing over him.

"Well as you can see I just got kicked out of my room so Roland and Lilith can make it their own personal love shack, but other then that I'm doing just fine!"

Maya rolled her eyes and helped him off the ground, "You're so lucky you're good looking, if you weren't you'd have no redeeming qualities"

Axton gave her a cocky smile and said, "Well other then my incredible skills and winning personality"

"C'mon lets go hang out in the common room"

The couple walked in and saw Gaige and Salvador watching T.V. and yelling at each other in Spanish over a soccer game. Maya always knew Salvador knew the language, but damn Gaige was fluent. Axton put his arm around her and said, "I think being cooped up here for so long has gotten to us all"

Mordecai walked through the room looking out of breath.

"Have any of you seen Luke?" he panted, barely managing to get a word out.

"No," answered Maya, "I thought he was with you!"

"Shit," said Axton, "we can't lose him, Lilith will go berserk!"

"Don't worry, he told me he was going out to grab some food for us," Salvador called over, sounding pretty hoarse from yelling so much. Everyone sighed in relief; at least he hadn't been abducted.

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"What information did you gather?"

"They're held up tight," answered Luke, "no one is getting in without them knowing,"

"Well that's unfortunate isn't it, we need that siren for my plan and that isn't going to happen if she's held up with those criminals,"

Luke growled and yelled, "We had a deal, I help you and Lilith doesn't get hurt!"

"Relax kiddo, I mean the blue haired one. You and your pretty little red head can leave no charge after I get my hands on her."

"Jack, if you hurt her…"

Handsome Jack laughed, "what is it with you and that girl anyways? You know she's going skaggy style with someone else right?"

Luke clenched his fist at the unnecessarily graphic comment, "you are NOT to kill her"

"Fine, fine," said Jack holding his hands up defensively, "I won't lay a finger on her, but you have to get me into their facility."

Luke nodded and walked out of Jack's office, ready to set the plan into motion.

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Three days later it had been made official, Jack was capturing everyone he could get his hands on to subject them to slag experiments. Overnight, the whole Bloodshot gang disappeared, even when they had been wary of the abductions. Roland kicked himself into overdrive to protect his only family from Handsome Jack's clutches. He and Gaige had been work on a shield that could protect them from Jack's robotic army, which had now started to attack or capture prisoners on sight. After a couple weeks the shield was activated and working like a charm, much to Handsome Jack's frustration. Around the shield had been finished Zer0 had fully recovered from his injuries, thanks to Angel's excellent care.

Zer0 was taking watch when Angel sat down next to him. Zer0 he cocked his head curiously at her, to which she responded, "are you ready for your first assignment?"

"Finally action, I thought you would never ask, I am ready Angel"

Angel smiled weakly, "Great, as you can see Jack has been able to up robot productivity because of his generous donors. These robots are capturing people and experimenting on them, each breakthrough leading Jack closer to his goals. What I need you to do is sabotage the robot assembly line system to cripple Jack's oppressive enforcers."

"I will strike swiftly, no one will see me coming, when should I attack?" asked Zer0

"Probably around midnight, if I know Jack he'll probably sleeping instead of watching security," Angel answered

Zer0 nodded in agreement. Tonight they would strike back. Tonight he would shake Jack's foundation.

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"So how many boyfriends have you had again?" asked Gaige

Moxxi smiled seductively, "200 counting Mordecai hon"

Mordecai's jaw dropped in shock, he had always thought when she said she's been in a lot of relationships she meant like 20 or so! Axton elbowed him playfully and joked, "Hah! You're getting, like, sloppy 199th!"

Roland shook his head as everyone started to tease Mordecai for his loose girlfriend.

"Oh don't be so hard on the boy," cooed Moxxi, "after all he is one of the best I've been with…" This made Mordecai stand tall and proud. Lilith laughed and said, "well now that we all know a little bit about your sex life, back to business!"

Roland nodded his head and began the briefing, "As you all know, Jack started to crack down on us more then ever before. That's why now more than ever no one, and this time I mean it, no one can leave this building without permission."

"I'll leave to steal us food and other goods," Luke interjected, "I've been a thief my whole life so I know a thing or to about theft."

"Ok, Luke will get us food but other then that no one leaves. We'll take watch shifts each day; Zer0 and Angel have volunteered to take the first watch tonight. All the other watches will be posted, I believe Mordecai and Brick are taking the morning. Gaige will be monitoring the shield and she will be guarded by Salvador along with her robot. The rest of you rest and relax while you can, but be ready to spring into action at a moments notice, we don't want Jack getting the drop on us."

With that Roland finished his announcement and headed back to his study to continue work on the defense plans. Zer0 and Angel went upstairs to start first watch while Gaige and Salvador headed to the shield generator. Maya, Axton, Moxxi, Brick, and Mordecai sat down on the couches and turned on the TV and flipped over to the news.

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Zer0 jumped off the watch balcony and left the shield's safety. Finally he was back to doing what he loved. He felt the rush, the adrenaline, the excitement of the mission; he felt alive again. He ran silently through the prison yard, gracefully diving and jumping over obstacles to avoid slowing down or getting caught. Zer0 continued to weave between cover fluently, ending his run with on huge jump onto the roof of the school building.

_There it is, the robot manufacturing plant_, Angel's voice said in Zer0's mind.

_So what's the plan?_ asked Zer0

_The plan right now is to get in, after that we'll play it by ear._

Zer0 slid off the roof and dived into a tree that stood over the protective fence around the factory. He peeked his head out to make sure no one would see him, and once he saw the coast was clear he jumped the fence and landed on an open window. He looked into the room and saw a robot standing guard at the door; it's back turned to him. It was a perfect kill. Zer0 snuck up behind it and slashed his sword through its power core, instantly destroying it. He moved the scraps and continued to creep down the hallway quietly. Zer0 finally came to a door labeled "robot production". He picked the lock with speed and skill and slowly opened the door. He analyzed the room and saw multiple gun loaders guarding the assembly line. Zer0 turned invisible and started to set his attack into motion. He positioned himself behind a loader and began to strike. Zer0 brought his sword up swiftly and sliced off the robot's arm. The robot turned around and could barely udder a warning before Zer0 kicked it off the catwalk, sending it into another gun loader. One of the loaders started to fire at him, but he swung off the catwalk on a lifter chain and disappeared. The loader scanned the area, but couldn't find anything. As it turned its head to scan, Zer0 swung into it and kicked the robot off the edge too, landing perfectly on another loader's shoulders. All the other security bots unloaded on the robot and tore it to shreds, but their bullets seemed to go straight through the figure standing on top. Zer0 appeared right in front of them and lunged, slicing one clean in half. He then jumped off the loader standing behind it and back flipped away, tipping the robot over into another. The last loader standing was frantically scanning for the unknown assailant, almost as if it was scared of what might become of it. Suddenly a red zero appeared to its side and next thing it knew Zer0's katana was lodged through its optic lens. Zer0 removed his sword as the robot crumpled to the ground and ran towards the production line.

_We want to make this look like an accident, so you're gonna need one of the robot's power cores to blow up the production line and all evidence you were here,_ Zer0 heard Angel say, _Unfortunately I don't think any of these bots have a powerful enough power core to wreck the place_…

Suddenly a giant badass loader smashed through the roof of the factory and readied its guns. A pre-recorded message from Handsome Jack started to play, "Dear whoever is fucking with my stuff, kudos! You managed to get past my security to something that is of actual value. Now that you're here be proud of the fact that in the last thirty seconds of your life, you've managed to be a small pain in the ass. Congrats and good riddance, next time you'll think twice before trying to mess with Handsome Jack!"

Once the recording cut off the robot started to unload on Zer0. Zer0 started to dodge and duck the robot's missiles as he navigated the now almost wrecked assembly line. Zer0 kept climbing higher with each jump, leaping from machine to machine as the badass loader tried to hit its target. The loader shot a huge barrage of missiles at Zer0, which missed and broke a small crane. The crane swung around and hit the robot, spinning it around. This was Zer0's chance, he jumped down while the loader's back was turned and lodged his sword in it's back. The robot flailed trying to throw the assassin off, but he held on for his life. Zer0 kept to hands on the sword and let his feet hit the floor. Then with all his might he brought up his katana, cleaving open the top half of the loader. The robot fell to the ground, defeated. A couple seconds after it fell, a blue cylinder fell out of it. _That's the power core,_ explained Angel,_ and by my readings that thing should be powerful enough to take out this factory in a violent explosion!_ Zer0 placed an explosive on the core was about to drop it in the assembly line when he noticed something funny. There was a piece of paper with the blueprints of the designated robot the factory was supposed to make. The strange thing was that the blueprints didn't look like loaders at all; they looked like clap trap blue prints! Zer0 pocketed the paper and decided to run it by Angel later, but for now he had a job to finish. He placed the explosives and ran out of the facility. Once at a safe distance, he pulled out the detonator. He held it up dramatically and after a countdown to three, the factory erupted in flames and electricity. Zer0 used the distraction to sprint back safely to the dorm, where he knew he would be safe. Zer0 sprinted through the shields after a series of ninja like jumps made it up to the balcony where he had left originally. Angel ran over to him and hugged him, "You did it, and you're alive! Oh my God after I saw the explosion I thought I'd lost you in it!"

"I'm professional, that was not the hardest job, it wasn't easy though", responded Zer0

Angel smiled and said, "That'll show Jack, he'll have nothing left before we claim his life,"

Roland popped through the door and asked worriedly, "What was that, I just saw a massive explosion!"

"It seems that they may have had a malfunction over at robot manufacturing," lied Angel, "I guess it works in our favor right?"

Roland shrugged and said, "Yeah, I guess so. Well you two are done, Mordecai and Brick will be up in a minute to take your spot,"

Once Roland went downstairs Angel turned and kissed Zer0 on his mask. "Thank you Zer0, you don't know how much this means to me."

Zer0 just rubbed his visor as Angel walked away. What a woman.

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Roland walked back to his workshop where Lilith was hanging out.

"So did you find out what it was?" asked Lilith

"Yeah," answered Roland, "It was a mistake at the robotics plant, apparently an engineer crossed the wrong wires and boom"

"Sweet, maybe we can actually relax for a bit," Lilith hoped maybe they would get to spend more time together

Roland sighed, "sorry Lilith, but we have to stay on guard if we want to survive, but I'm working on a plan to escape"

"Really, can I hear it?" asked Lilith

Roland laughed and said, "emphasis on working on, I still haven't actually formulated one,"

There was a knock at the door, so Lilith went to open it. Axton walked in the door along with Maya, both of them looking really worried.

"Jack just made an announcement, he's put a two million dollar bounty within the prison on Maya's head" reported Axton

"What?! Why does he want Maya?" asked Roland

"I don't know," Maya answer, "but I did some research and it turns out sirens are somehow related to that eridium stuff Jack has been experimenting with."

"But how could we be related to it, heck I've never even heard of the stuff until recently?" Lilith wondered

"I don't know, but whatever Jack wants with me it can't be good"

Roland thought for a second and then gave out commands, "Alright, Axton you should stay with Maya as much as possible, I know she can fend for herself but we can never be too careful. I'll have Luke watch over Lilith and Zer0 watch over Angel, if Jack is looking for one siren, who's to say he isn't looking for the other two. I'm going to try to form an escape plan. Also, tell Brick and Mordecai to start paying close attention to everything, even if it seems like nothing. Moxxi will be cooking meals so no one will have to worry about dinner duty, which should allow people more time to do inventory checks and keep watch."

Axton nodded then left the room with Maya. Lilith closed the door behind them and turned to Roland. "Roland, we have to leave now. Between the prisoners and Jack's robots I don't know how long we'll hold up,"

Roland pulled her in and said, "It'll be ok, we have our team. As long as we stay vigilant and stick together we'll be all right. Lilith kissed him on the cheek and started to walk out. Right before she left the room she turned and asked, "When we leave, where will you go?"

"I don't know, maybe to one of the border planets. At least there I won't get arrested again…"  
Lilith nodded and left. Her time in this prison had changes so much, she didn't know if she could go back to living off scraps with Luke.

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Luke was hanging out in the hallway trying to figure out a plan of his own. He knew they couldn't hold forever, all that mattered now was Lilith's safety. He had to find a way to break their defenses so he and Lilith could leave and get back to the way things used to be. Jack had promised to let Lilith and him go, he didn't know what would happen to the others but their lives didn't even compare in importance to the one he loved. The shield was what was keeping this fortress together, but he couldn't get to it without Gaige, Salvador, or Death Trap seeing him. He had to find a way to take it out discretely, if only he had stealth like Zer0's.

"Hey Luke, how are you holding up?"

Luke turned and saw Lilith waiting for a response. "I'm, I'm fine," he muttered, Lilith would not approve of his decision but she would thank him later

Lilith raised her eyebrow skeptically, "I dunno, you sound kinda crappy. Maybe you should rest or something, you've been working to hard trying to steal food for us"

Luke laughed nervously, "Well unfortunately it's pretty hard to steal for a group this size. I tell ya, things were a lot more simple when it was just you and me."  
"Yeah," said Lilith, "but I think I like this better. I feel like I'm a part of something bigger, you know?"

Luke nodded; it was exactly how he felt when he was in the thieves' guild of Eden-13. That was, at least, until their so-called "leader" betrayed them and sold their entire gang out to Hyperion. He would never forget the day loaders burst through their doors and started to shoot and arrest everyone in sight. It was the day he met Lilith. When he was trying to escape the scene he saw a girl his age being cornered by a loader. He pulled out his bow and managed to hit the robot in its lens and save her. Ever since then the two had been traveling together, but this prison had been tearing their friendship apart. She was all he had left and he was not going to let her die.

"Well anyways I'm gonna hit the sack, see ya later Luke"

Luke brought himself back into reality and managed to say goodbye. Lilith gave him her signature wink and walked to her room. He had to figure out a way to save them, but how…

**So many plot twists! As always please read and review, thanks for reading!**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: Hey everyone, I've managed to crank out yet another chapter due to my insane amount of free time at the moment, I hope you enjoy!**

** Smiley117: Honestly I don't really have a designated time for updates, it's really whenever I have the time to write another chapter. Glad your enjoying the story though!**

** Everyone who has been asking for a Luke vs Roland fight: C'mon guys, how could I not? Just be patient and you'll get to see the two duke it out.**

Chapter Eight: Animal Cruelty

Zer0 and Angel stood watch during the night while the others slept. They had made sure to procure every night shift so that if they needed to make another move against Jack they could do it at a moment's notice. The skags' howls were becoming abnormally loud, to the point where sleep became near impossible. An earsplitting howl startled the two as they kept their eye on a couple of bandits camped outside their shield.

"The skags are annoying, I cannot hear myself think, what is happening?" grumbled Zer0

Angel covered her ears as another howl resonated throughout the prison, "I think it's Jack's animal testing, he uses these poor creatures to continue his experiments."

Zer0 cringed at another shriek and said, "Won't people get mad, the public loves animals, how does he hide this?"

"I don't know, but it ends tonight. Zer0, I have the second part of your contract. I want you to release all the mutant animals onto Jack's scientists. This should cripple his research a lot, not only will he loose his best staff, but he will lose his test subjects as well."

Zer0 nodded and said, "Where should I go to, I don't know where this occurs, direct me to them"

"The facility is under the school building," explained Angel, "if you go to the basement level there is a room that looks like a janitor's closet. If you look around there should be a dial pad on the wall. Type in 4NG1 and it should open."

"You know this place well, how did you find the lab, have you been in it?" asked Zer0, Angel knew way too much about this place not to have been there.

Angel fidgeted nervously for a bit, then answered, "I actually have, you forget I knew Jack before all this."

Zer0 wanted to know more, but he decided respected her secrets. He jumped off the balcony and ran towards the school.

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Angel smiled faintly as he left, hoping he would make it back.

"Angel, where did Zer0 just run off to?"

Angel quickly turned around and saw Lilith, arms crossed waiting for an answer. Crap, she couldn't tell her where Zer0 was off to, the less the others knew the better. She had to think of something fast, but as Zer0 had told her multiple times she was a horrible liar, if only that was true. Lilith started tapping her foot impatiently, well here it goes, "He was going out to grab some provisions, we realized we were low on bottled water and since Luke is asleep Zer0 decided to go grab some,"  
Lilith waited a couple seconds to respond, trying to decide if she liked that answer or not. "Okay…" she said, "just make sure he comes back alright?"

Angel nodded quickly, "Don't worry, I wouldn't let anything happen to him,"

Lilith sat down in Zer0's spot to watch the night with her. The sky was littered with stars, all shining so brightly. It would have been so beautiful if they, well, weren't in prison.

"These are tough times aren't they," said Lilith, trying to spark up a conversation

"Yeah," Angel agreed, "but I'm sure things will get better once Roland finishes his escape plan."  
"I just hope we don't all go our separate ways, I hate goodbyes,"

"So do I Lilith, maybe we can all stay together on the road. It'll be just like what you and Luke were doing before all this," said Angel

"Yeah those were good times," Lilith reminisced

She and Luke had been together for practically their whole lives, if she hadn't met Roland she may have ended up falling for him. He was always there for her no matter what, and he was so selfless. But Roland had come into her life, and she knew that he was the best she would ever find. He had been giving up all his time to try to keep the team alive and together. As a leader, he was the best she had ever seen. Lilith pulled out a neckless that had been given to her by him. It was nothing fancy, probably was worth about twenty dollars, but to her it was priceless. Attatchd to it were two caps, the caps of the drinks they had shared that one night, the night that launched them into where they were now.

"Lilith?"

Lilith looked up and saw Angel smiling back to her, "You kinda zoned out there Lil, what were you thinking about?"

"Oh, nothing," she responded as she slid the neckless back under her shirt, "hey Angel I'm gonna go back to sleep, good night." Angel smiled and waved to her as she walked down the stairs. Angel was so sweet and innocent, Lilith had no idea why she got herself involved with a place like this.

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_I've made it to the closet,_ Zer0 communicated to Angel

_Good_, she responded,_ now go and look for the lock. Remember, the code is 4NG._

Zer0 turned his visor on to night vision and searched the dark closet, shoving over cleaning chemicals and other tools. After five minutes of searching, he found the code pad behind a box of foxtails. He typed in the code, 4NG1, and the screen that displayed the numbers turned green. After three beeps the floor started to tremble, and then began to move downward. Once the floor stopped Zer0 saw a whole laboratory, lined with fiberglass screens. Behind each screen was an abomination of nature, a skag with three heads, a rakk that was engulfed in slag, an electrical varkid, and other sorts of horribly mutated animals. Zer0 heard footsteps and immediately jumped onto the ceiling and clung on. He activated his invisibility and tried to eavesdrop on their conversation,

"Damn, I can't believe how well that last project went," said one of them

The other nodded, "An astounding development indeed, just wait till we can use it on humans. This discovery will bring us into a new age!"

"Well I'm gonna check out, my wife isn't gonna beat herself!"

The other scientist laughed, "very good Anderson, I'll go back to check on the boss, I'm sure she's still with the experiment"

The two parted their ways, Zer0 decided to stalk the Neil, or at least that's who his nametag said he was, so he could find out about this new creation. Cloaked by the shadows, he crept behind the scientist silently. Neil rounded the corner and walked towards a large circular door with what looked like a handprint scanner. He pulled off his lab gloves and put his hand on the device. The door slid open and Neil walked through, Zer0 was barely able to dive through it before the door closed completely. Zer0 continued to follow him until Neil walked by a pair of guard hot loader robots, who would discover him for sure with their infrared scanners. He looked around for a way past them, not wanting to blow his cover. He scanned the room and spotted an air vent that could possibly take him towards his target. Zer0 carved a hole in the vent and climbed through. He turned his visor to pick up heat signatures and continued to follow Neil. All was going well until the scientist's heat signature suddenly went cold. Curious, Zer0 crawled over the area where his prey's signal had dropped. Suddenly a huge clawed hand ripped through the air vents and grabbed him, pulling him into the blinding light of what looked like an animal testing room. He looked at the beast holding him, but had to look away quickly before he gagged. _Oh my God, what is that thing!_ Zer0 heard Angel say through his mind. The thing had the body and arms of a ferevore, but had a set of huge rakk wings. It had three heads, the middle was a skag's, and the other two were varkids. Its chest was protected by a spiderant's tough exoskeleton and it had the sharp tail of a stalker.

"You like our new creation?"

Zer0 looked for the voice and saw a woman standing in the observation room. She smiled evilly down at him and said, "Excuse me, we haven't been properly introduced. I'm Alison Sheriff; my boyfriend told me you'd be coming so I thought I'd cook up a little something something for ya. You see the creature that's holding you right now wasn't always this obedient; no he was as wild as they come. But do you see that collar he has there, that's what our new creation is. That thing allows us to take control of whatever's wearing it, like this mutant! Now I know you're a busy guy so I'll cut right to the chase, have fun getting torn apart."  
The beast roared and was about to crush Zer0, but he had a plan. A small intense ball of light started to form in front of Zer0's helmet, confusing the monster momentarily. Suddenly it exploded in a huge red flash, temporarily blinding the creature. It stumbled back, holding its eyes in pain. It looked around for it's prey but Zer0 was gone. Zer0 appeared right behind it and did a spin attack with his sword. The monster tried to grab him, but he dodged each of its clumsy swipes with ease. It may have been strong but it sure wasn't coordinated, Zer0 was able to toy with the thing easily. The creature roared in frustration and threw a huge punch towards the assassin. Zer0 jumped on top of its arm and started to run up it. With one precise lunge, he knocked the creature to the ground. He turned to Alison and laughed, "that was your monster, it was no challenge at all, it was slain easily,"

Alison smirked and said, "Oh did I mention that it has varkid DNA? Yeah I guess it was kinda obvious with the heads but it think you might find this interesting. You see varkids have an incredible ability to evolve almost instantaneously, with its next form stronger then the first."

Zer0 didn't understand what she meant at first, but then turned and saw a strange pulsing cocoon looking mass. Suddenly, a new monster burst from it. This thing had six heads and was even larger then the first. The mutant swiped at Zer0 with speed and ferocity, knocking him across the room. _ZER0!_ he heard Angel scream as he tried to regain his senses. His vision started to return and he saw the beast charging at him. He quickly jumped out of the way, causing the creature to go barreling into the wall. While the creature was dazed, Zer0 put his plan into action. He jumped onto the mutant's back and jumped towards the observation window. Just when Alison realized what was going on it was two late. Zer0 crashed through the window and sprinted towards the door, the monster coming through with him. She was trampled and killed by the beast as it scrambled to try and catch Zer0. The assassin sprinted as fast as he could with the monster chasing him, killing and destroying everything in its path. Zer0 pushed through confused engineers and robots who where all soon trampled by the raging mutant. Finally he reached the final stretch, he saw the opening where the elevator was. He ran towards it, the monster barreling behind him. Zer0 didn't have time to wait for the elevator, so he decided to climb up himself. With speed and dexterity, he jumped from wall to wall until he reached the top. He dived through the closet door as quickly as possible and stopped to catch his breath. He looked down the hole and saw the monster stuck, roaring and gnashing its teeth. Zer0 looked at his side and saw he was bleeding pretty badly, so he decided he should head back. He started to limp out of the building, but still staying quiet so he wouldn't get caught. He opened the double doors that led to the courtyard and saw a terrifying sight. Hyperion loaders surrounded him, all with their guns pointed straight at him. Suddenly a voice started to talk over his echo communicator. "Hey buddy, how's it going?" Handsome Jack. "Yeah I know what you're thinking, 'ahhh Handsome Jack is calling me; I don't like him!' Well guess what kiddo, you've been getting on my nerves too. Look I know Angel has hired you; in fact I knew you planned to kill me for her all along! Unfortunately for you this little quest ends here. I can tolerate you blowing up a couple factories and killing my girlfriend, but when you start to steal important stuff from me, that's when I get mad." Zer0 had no idea what Jack was talking about, he hadn't stolen anything. Then he remembered, the blueprints he had picked up from the factory, could those have been of actual importance? "Hey kid, KID! You know what, I'm just gonna assume you heard me and continue to the part where my ridiculous amount of robots kill you. Have a nice day ass hole!" The robots all started to target Zer0 and ready their weapons. All of them fired at once, the bullets kicking up dust and the deafening noise of their weaponry sounding throughout the prison. After fifteen seconds of constant fire the robots stopped. When the dust cleared they saw there was no bloody mess of a corpse, in fact there wasn't anything. Suddenly one of the robots was carved in half, behind it stood Zer0, holding its power core. Zer0 threw the core into the crowd like a grenade, taking out a chunk of Jack's forces. One robot lunged at him with a shield from behind, but he back flipped over it and cut through its abdomen like paper. Two badass loaders on opposite sides of Zer0 and readied their rockets. Right as they fired, Zer0 disappeared, causing their rockets to run straight the badass across from them. Zer0 stabbed his katana through an ion loader's lens and kicked off of it, pushing the robot and katana through another. A power loader tried to attack him while he didn't have his sword, but was soon met by a precise shot from his Apollo sniper rifle. The assassin single handedly finished off Jack's arrest team. "Aghhhh, what the fuck!" yelled Jack, "you were supposed to die, then I was gonna call up all your friends and tell them the news. I had it all planned out, first I was gonna start a violin in the background, then I was going list off you life achievements. You wanna hear them? Here they are, BEING A BITCH! That's it; there isn't anything else! Ah well, I still have plans for you and your friends, but until then I'll keep in touch." Jack's voice cut off, leaving Zer0 surrounded by the remains of dozens of robots.

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Luke walked down to the generator room, he was at least gonna scope it out before he made his move. Before he could enter the room someone tapped his shoulder from behind. He turned and saw Roland standing behind him giving him a friendly smile.

"Hows it going soldier?"

Luke got his wits together and answered, "Pretty good Roland, if you don't mind me asking, what are you doing down here?"

"Well Gaige and I were going to work on the shield some, it seems it has a rather incapacitating problem that we have to fix if any of us want to be safe,"

Jackpot, this would be too easy. "So what, may I ask, might that problem be,"

Roland patted him on the back and said, "C'mon, I'll show you."  
Roland typed in the door code and opened it up. In the room was Gaige, who was covered in motor oil trying to work on the shield, and Salvador, who was standing watch. Gaige turned her head towards them when she heard the door closed and gave them a toothy grin. "What's up guys? Luke, are you gonna help with the shield too?"

Luke nodded nervously; he could not blow his cover now. Roland walked over to the machine and started to inspect it, then said, "So I see we still have a problem"

Gaige nodded solemnly, "for some reason this stupid machine will still short circuit whenever there is a sudden concentrated high pitch sound burst. I can't figure out what it is!"

That was it, a sound burst would break the shields, Luke could save Lilith from this horrible place now! Roland pulled out some tools and started to work on the machine. "Hey Luke," he asked, "do you mind handing me that spark plug over there. Luke looked in Roland's toolbox and saw the spark plug and picked it up. Before he gave it to Roland, he had an idea. Luke always carried sound arrows that would create an earsplitting noise whenever he needed a distraction during a heist. He noticed the tip of those arrows looked a whole lot like the spark plug that Roland had asked for. He quickly unscrewed the top of the arrow and gave it to Roland with a fake smile. _This is for you Lilith_ he thought as he set his trap. Gaige attached the "spark plug" and the machine started to whir with energy.

"There we go," she said, "she's purring like Moxxi now!"

"Good job Gaige, I'm gonna head back up to try to continue forming our escape plan, Luke you wanna come and help?" offered Roland

Luke nodded his head and followed Roland upstairs and into the planning room. Roland closed the door behind them and turned to him. "Look, I know we didn't get along at first but I understand why you were upset. Let me assure you that you have nothing to worry about; I would throw away my life for Lilith. So let's let bygones be bygones and try to start over,"

Luke smiled and said, "I'd really like that,"

As the two shook hands Luke thought to himself,_ no, you don't love her like me. You can't protect her from Jack so that's why I have to do this. She deserves better._

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Axton was sitting in the kitchen eating dinner when Maya burst in, almost causing him to collapse in shock.

"Jesus Maya, give me a heart attack why don't ya!" he said, trying to gather what was left of his dinner

"Sorry sweetie," apologized Maya, "It's just that I think I've found why Jack wants to capture a siren!"

"Really, tell me!" Axton asked curiously

"According to a couple personal journals I've been able to extract from the Hyperion system he has been trying to find a way to catalyze the energy given off by that purple mineral eridium. This explains all the animal and human experiments, eridum needs organic material to reach it's maximum potential, but he has hit a couple speed bumps."

"And that is?" asked Axton

"The humans and animals can't handle that kind of energy, it has caused each and every one of them to die or mutate in some horrible way. That's where the sirens come in. Our powers come from the utilization of the same energy emitted by eridium crystals. Jack has realized that because we can handle and control this energy to use our powers, we will more than likely be a perfect catalyst for eridium."  
Axton took a couple seconds to take it all in, then continued to question her, "Wait, why does Jack want eridium in the first place?"

"We don't know, Mordecai is actually investigating right now."  
"You mean was investigating,"

The two turned and saw Mordecai and Bloodwing at the door. Mordecai walked over to the kitchen table and sat down next to Axton. He pulled out a bottle of beer and popped the cap, taking a swig before talking again. "Jack wants the eridium to power some machine he is trying to build. This machine is apparently the first step in some huge plan. Blood and I weren't able to get any more information, but we did grab a nugget of eridium before we left." Bloodwing flew over Mordecai's hand and dropped a hunk of purple crystal into it. Maya snatched the eridium from him and started to examine it.

"Well," asked Axton, "do you feel any different?"

"I don't know," Maya responded, "I don't feel any different. Huh, maybe Jack was wro…" Suddenly the crystal pulsed with energy and Maya's eyes lit up blue. Suddenly blue energy wings burst from her back, sending a wave of energy out. Axton and Mordecai were both pushed out of their seats when the pulse hit them; Bloodwing even singed a few feathers. Maya dropped the nugget and fell back in exhaustion. Axton managed to catch her before she hit the ground, but the room was still wrecked from the sudden burst of power. "Wow," panted Maya, "THAT WAS BADASS!"

"Ummm, are you OK Maya?" asked Mordecai

"OK? I'm better then OK. God I never felt so alive! This eridium enhanced my powers ten fold, and this was only a nugget. Think of what a whole stack could do!"

"Whoa whoa, lets calm down Maya. You seem pretty out of it, maybe we should wait a little bit before you go super saiyen again," said Axton, trying to keep her from getting ahead of herself.

Maya nodded her head, "You're probably right, do you mind carrying me to my room? I'm a little tired"

Axton smiled back at her, "No problem babe, and if you want to celebrate a bit…"

"Just take me to my room hotshot,"

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Zer0 barely managed to climb the to the balcony, once he got to it he collapsed on the floor. Angel rushed to him and rolled him over. Zer0 had a large cut running along his side, probably from the abomination's claws.

"Zer0, can you hear me?" she frantically asked

Zer0 picked himself up slowly and fell down on his chair. "I will be alright, I would bear this pain for you, I am a tough guy"

Angel smiled and sat down next to him, leaning her head on his shoulder. Zer0 couldn't believe it; he hated to even think about it. After all these years of professional behavior he had fallen hopelessly in love with his contractor. He found that he meant what he said; he would do anything for her. Not once did he think about his payment, but only about pleasing her.

"Angel why all this, why do you want to kill Jack, what'd he do to you?" asked Zer0, he had to know

Angel sighed, "Jack and I go way back, but lets just say he did something so horribly unforgivable that he needs to face justice. Unfortunately, he is the CEO if the Hyperion Corporation so not many are willing to speak against him…"

Zer0 shot up; Jack was a CEO? He had always thought that Jack was just a really messed up warden, but never the president of the Hyperion Corporation! Angel laughed and said, "By the look on your face I'm guessing you didn't know. That's OK, not many do. Jack had so many hits on him that they moved him here to try to protect him from these people. Criminals are willing to go anywhere in the world for money but prison I guess. I'm sorry I didn't tell you, I would understand if you wanted to stop right now but…"

Zer0 cut her off, "Angel I won't leave, you mean way too much to me, I will always stay"

Angel smiled and put her hand on his helmet. She felt the cold metal on her fingertips; she wanted to see his face so desperately. "Zer0," she asked, "may I see you without the helmet?" Zer0 thought for a second, was he really willing to reveal himself to her? Then he looked at Angel, her beautiful blue eyes and her warm caring smile. Zer0 moved his hands to his helmet and detached it. Steam hissed out from the bottom as he pulled it off, revealing his face. Zer0 had jet-black hair and crimson red eyes. His skin was pale because of being protected by the visor for so long. He had a long scar running from his forehead through one of his eyes and down his cheek.

Angel touched the cheek with the scar, "Where did you get this,"

"A stalker did it, when I was young I fought one, it wounded my eye" Zer0 responded without his usual metallic voice. Angel looked into the eye his scar was running through and saw it was a more milky red then the other. As she stared into it she found herself leaning in closer and closer until her lips touched his. The two held each other passionately; Zer0 savored the only real connection with other skin he had felt in so long. Angel pulled in closer, feeling the rush of emotion and adrenaline pumping through her. For the moment, the world was perfect. To bad perfection never lasts.

**This chapter had a bit more romance, but it's important for a story to have! Also Maya is discovering the potential of her siren powers. I know in BL2 she is the only one who doesn't utilize eridium, but I thought it would be cool to see her super charged with the stuff, so expect to see more of it. Thanks for reading and don't forget to write me a review!**


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: Well, here is the climactic chapter we have all been waiting for. Hope you all enjoy my disaster chapter, and remember to leave a review!**

** BubblyGum24: I do have some plans on a sequel but I want to see where this story leads me first. If I feel like it needs a sequel I will deliver. In terms of this story ending, I still have more plans for it believe me.**

** Isaac Clark aka Reven: Glad you're enjoying the story and thanks for the suggestion! As I have said before I will try to include a little more MayaxAxton but just know that they are not the focus of this story as of right now.**

Chapter Nine: It All Goes to Shit

_It's now or never, Roland is almost finished with his escape plan and once he is it'll be too late. Jack's army is lined up ready to march in and enforce his disgusting image of justice; all that stands in the way is the shield. Or at least it was the shield._

Brick burst into Roland's workshop as the dorm shook like an earthquake.

"The shield went down somehow! Hyperion is at our doorstep and trying to break in!"

Roland jolted upward, how was this possible; he had just repaired the shield! "Get to your stations and try to hold them off while I put this plan into action!" Roland unrolled the plan for their escape; he just hoped it was finished. He took a couple seconds to memorize their exodus and then burned the paper; making sure no one could follow them. As the shaking got more violent, Roland picked up a shotgun and kicked down the door. He saw Axton defending Maya with his life from two loaders. Roland ran over and helped dispatch the robots then turned to the two, "Axton, sneak Maya out through the back, there should be a sewer grate that you can jump down. Once inside follow the lab rats to our pick up and wait there, do not let them take her!" Axton nodded and ran out the back with Maya just as Roland had said. The sound of laughing dying robots filled the hallways, good, Salvador was still alive. Roland ran over towards the laughter and saw Salvador wielding two mini-guns mowing down every loader in sight.

"Roland! You finally decided to join the fun eh?"

"Salvador," Roland asked, "where is everyone else?"

The gunzerker shrugged, "Gaige and Deathtrap are out fighting in front of the fortress, so are Mordecai and Brick. I haven't seen Moxxi, Lilith, Luke, Maya, Axton, Zer0, or Angel"

Shit, they were split up. Roland needed to find everyone and keep them together; they were all getting out of this alive. He ran towards the kitchen where Moxxi usually hung out and saw the place was trashed. _Oh no,_ he thought,_ Mordecai will be devastated!_ Just then he heard footsteps behind him and saw Moxxi holding a custom SMG. She smiled at him and said, "I'm not much of a fighter, but in this place you gotta know how to split some heads."

"Regroup outside and help the others hold the line while I find the others,"

Moxxi nodded and ran outside to join the others, one down, five to go. Roland searched frantically for in his opinion the most important, Lilith. As the battle out front raged on the Raider's defenses began to fall, they couldn't hold the line much longer. Finally, he found Luke and Lilith out back trying to take cover from the explosives.

"C'mon we have to go NOW!" yelled Luke

Lilith shook her head, "I told you we can't leave the others behind, we are on a team remember!"

"If we don't leave Jack is going…"

Roland stepped in on the conversation, "We are going to be find, now get up and fight, we have to hold the line until we are all together, then we can escape."  
Luke couldn't believe this, Lilith was going to fight an unbeatable foe instead of escaping with him; he was trying to save her life!"

"Lets go Luke," said Lilith as she grabbed Luke and pulled him towards the front line. The two rushed out the front door and saw the Raiders fending off hoards and hoards of robots. Salvador was charging each one of the bastards, letting loose his lead filled rage. Brick was right behind him doing what he did best, tearing the robots apart with his bare fists. Moxxi and Mordecai stood back to back as Bloodwing toppled loaders and took out the repair units. Gaige sat on Death Trap's shoulders as it ripped through Jack's army with its claws, cheering her robot on. Lilith nodded toward look then disappeared in a purple burst. This was going all wrong, Lilith was supposed to come with him and escape Jack's wrath, not stay and fight! Lilith raced through the crowd, using her phase blast to take out large chunks in their numbers. She ran through a couple loaders, causing them to short circuit, and jumped over Salvador. In the middle of her jump she turned solid and kicked a robot trying to get the drop on the dwarf. "Nice one amiga, now let me return the favor!" laughed Salvador. He pulled out two rocket launchers and started to unload on the army, whipping the bots out by the hundreds. Lilith helped cover him, using a shotgun to keep away EXP loaders. Brick ran over to them and punched straight through a badass loader, leaving a huge gaping hole. Moxxi jumped through the hole and unleashed her acid SMG, which burned away the robot's armor as they went haywire. Mordecai started to snipe with deadly accuracy, piercing through the lenses of three gun loaders with one bullet. "Death Trap lets regulate this!" Death Trap flew above the crowd and unleashed a devastating laser attack that swept through Jack's forces. Gaige pulled out a pistol and started to fire rounds at the robots, adding on to her robot's collateral damage. But no matter how well they fought, the robot's numbers. They were being overwhelmed.

"We can't take this much longer!" panted Brick

Lilith nodded, "If this lasts any longer we'll be dead!"

Suddenly Roland kicked down the front door and threw out his turret. The machine digi-structed, but something was different. The turret was huge; its shield almost reached the prison wall. The giant gun started to mow down the hoard of robots closing in on them as the group ran inside. "I can't find Zer0 or Angel, but we have to go now" The group solemnly nodded in agreement, no one wanted to leave the two behind, but they had to escape. They followed Roland out the back door to the sewers. The Crimson Raiders were so close to freedom.

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"Are you ready?' asked Angel, tossing Zer0 his sniper rifle. Zer0 nodded as he screwed on the silencer. Right when the attack had started, the two had snuck away to do one last thing. They were going to kill Handsome Jack. Zer0 attached the rifle to his back and calibrated his night vision. Angel assembled her weapons; she had decided to come with him to finish what they had started. She loaded her assault rifle and readied her grenades, trying to remember what Zer0 had taught her about stealth and accuracy. "Zer0," said Angel, "I just want to repeat, you don't have to do this. You can walk away right now and I wouldn't blame you, this mission is practically suicide."

Zer0 shook his head adamantly; he was not going to leave his Angel to Jack's mercy. Angel pulled out a purple glowing rock from her pack. Zer0 looked at it and immediately realized what it was, eridium. "This stuff should enhance my siren powers, I'm going to try to teleport us both inside," explained Angel. Zer0 nodded for her to begin. Angel clenched the eridium and started to focus her power. White wings burst from her back and when she opened her eyes they were glowing white. In a flash, Zer0 suddenly found himself inside the watchtower. Angel collapsed on the ground in exhaustion right after the two arrived. Zer0 ran over to help her up, but she stopped him and said, "You go on ahead, I'll catch up to you." The assassin ran ahead as ordered, ready to end the tyrant's life. Zer0 hid behind the corner as a Hyperion soldier patrolled down the hall. Right as the soldier was about to turn, Zer0 grabbed him and covered his mouth; finishing him with a slash through the neck. The soldier fell and Zer0 continued to sneak through the corridors, dispatching the soldiers silently and fairly easily. Just when things seemed to be simple, Jack's voice came over the intercom. "Seriously guys," he said, "if you haven't noticed yet there is an assassin sneaking around this building and killing all of you idiots when you round the corner. Now I suggest you do something before I feed you to Butt Stallion, and you REALLY don't want to mess with Butt Stallion."

The soldiers heard the announcement and switched on their lights, frantically searching for the killer. Right as one spun around the corner, Zer0 grabbed his gun and pushed him through the window. The other two soldiers freaked out and started to fire, the flashes from the guns lighting up the dark room. No matter how hard they tried, they couldn't seem to hit him. After each shot, Zer0 seemed to appear closer and closer until he lunged at the second soldier, slicing him clean in half. The last guard left started to scream, "What are you! Come out you freak, fight me like a man!" Zer0 reappeared behind him and wrapped his arm around his neck.

"Tell me where Jack is, or I will cut off your head, it won't be pretty," Zer0 threatened.

"His office is at the very top, you'll need this key to get in," whimpered the soldier, handing Zer0 a key card. Zer0 broke the man's throat and tried to figure out what to do next. He couldn't just keep going floor to floor killing each guard; he had to find a better way. Zer0 looked towards the window and decided the best way up was to climb. He jumped trough the window and grabbed onto a steel beam that stuck out from the top and began his ascent. He climbed up each hanging wire and Hyperion flagpole, making his way up. As he climbed up a spotlight suddenly lit up the area around him. Zer0 turned and saw a buzzard hovering next to him, guns pointed in his direction. "Prepare to feel the wrath of air support bitch!" the pilot yelled. The buzzard started to fire towards him un-relentlessly. Zer0 jumped towards a windowsill and started to scramble up as fast as possible. He jumped up as fast as he could, dodging missiles and bullets all the while. The buzzard continued to close distance, trying to get a better shot at its speedy target. As Zer0 climbed further and further, the buzzard kept coming closer and closer. It had just fallen into his trap. Zer0 lunged out towards the buzzard, much to the pilot's surprise. He grabbed onto one of its wings and swung on top of the chopper. He stabbed his sword through one of its rotors, causing the part to explode in a puff of smoke and fire. The buzzard started to spin out of control, veering left and right. The pilot tried to shake him off, but to know avail. He proceeded to pull apart the buzzard by ripping a metal sheet off the back. Inside was the engine for the machine. The assassin made quick work of it, stabbing and slashing the engine until it blew out. Zer0 then jumped onto the cockpit, pulled the pilot out of his seat, and threw him off. He looked around the controls, trying to find an eject seat button. He finally found it and slammed on the button with all his might. The seat shot out towards the building as the buzzard went down in flames. Zer0 jumped off the seat and through the window. He stood up, his vision a bit blurry from the spinning of the downed buzzard. The assassin managed to collect himself and looked at the floor level. He was right below the top floor.

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Zer0 readied himself; this was it. Jack was going to pay for his crimes; he was going to die by his blade. Zer0 took a deep breath, and then kicked down the doors. He walked in slowly, savoring the moment. The room was beautiful; it was colored a golden yellow and was decorated with diamonds and other jewels.

"I see you like the room," a voice sad

Zer0 turned and saw Jack sitting at his desk, loading a pistol. Jack waited a couple seconds for a response, but Zer0 said nothing. He shrugged and said, "OK, so you're the silent type. That's fine; I know why you're here. You think you're gonna kill me." Zer0 responded by drawing his sword and holding it readily. Jack put his hands up mockingly and said, "Oh, you think I'm gonna fight you. That's funny really, but no."

"You will suffer Jack, I will carve you like a hen, my sword will taste blood," Zer0 threatened, readying himself for the kill.

Jack laughed, "Oh so you speak in haikus, is that it? God you're a bitch! Well I'm not really a fighter like you retards, no. I am a man with a plan. You have been so blinded by your mission that you failed to overlook one important detail. The thing that has been allowing me to keep the upper hand, my little secret."

Suddenly a sharp pain shot through Zer0's head, he could feel his cybernetic enhancements frying. He fell to the floor clutching his head, screaming in agony as the pain started to grow and grow. The burn was unbearable, Zer0 felt as if a thousand needles were slowly piercing his skull. He looked up; his vision blurred, and saw Angel walk over to Jack. Surely, she was here to save him! Something was wrong though. She seemed defeated, like she was crying. He saw Jack smile at him and heard him say, "Angel is working for me,"

Zer0's world shattered. Jack laughed as he saw Zer0's stunned and hurt expression and said, "Everything she made you do was helping me! You see, once I get the siren I'm going to leave this place and begin step two in my plan. Unfortunately, there was one problem, I had a shit ton of experiments and constructions that others would have found 'inhumane'. I couldn't destroy them myself because it would have raised too much suspicion, but if someone from the outside destroyed them I could get rid of the evidence. So I got Angel here to hire you and convince you to destroy everything that could ruin my public image. You singlehandedly destroyed any chance the public finding me out, burning down incriminating buildings and tying up loose ends such as Miss Sheriff."

Zer0 couldn't believe he hadn't seen it before; of course she was working for Jack! It all seemed so obvious now, the destruction, the targets, and his embarrassing seduction. She had played him like a fiddle. "Angel," Zer0 choked out over his physical and internal pain, "why?"

Angel turned away, trying to hide her face from him. He couldn't believe he had fallen for her, the traitorous bitch! Zer0 roared in rage and charged at Jack, ready to tear him limb from limb. Jack just smiled and called, "Oh Angel…"

"I'm sorry," whimpered Angel as she raised her hand. A white light emitted from her tattoos and engulfed Zer0. He tried to fight through it, using his rage to motivate him. But in the end it was too much, the siren's power over his technological crutches was too much. Zer0 collapsed again as Jack laughed triumphantly. He ran over and kicked the down assassin while taunting him. "What's wrong buddy, oh don't tell me you actually are crushed by this? I mean, yeah you did fall in love with her but think of it this way; you learned a life lesson. Don't fuck with Handsome Jack! Oh and one more thing…" Jack bent down and pulled the stolen blueprints from Zer0's pocket. "I'm gonna need these back, if anyone were to get a hold of this I'd be in a whole mess of trouble!" Jack opened them up and looked at them with a grin. He sighed in satisfaction and said, "Don't you love it when a great plan just falls together? I don't know about you, but I do. Well I'm done here, Angel would you kindly deal with the assassin?" Angel turned away and summoned her powers once more. Zer0 found himself being consumed by a white light, his vision growing dark. Only one thought remained in his head before he fell into unconsciousness, revenge.

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"Keep running!" yelled Roland, leading the group towards the manhole. When they arrived Roland nodded to Brick, who quickly ripped it off as if it was made of wet paper. The raiders jumped down and started to sprint through the sewers with the loaders in hot pursuit. Mordecai turned and shot off the jets of a couple robots, sending them flying into their metallic comrades. This only slowed them down, but the loaders kept swarming into the sewer. A group of lab rats gave them covering fire, for they wanted revenge on Handsome Jack for mutating them into abominations. The group was almost towards the end, but the robots were too close. The swarm closed in on them until they were almost close enough to touch. Just as all seemed lost, the whole hoard where pulled into a blue vortex. Suddenly a turret built itself up and gunned down the immobilized bots. Once most had been killed, the vortex condensed them into a huge mass of metal, which was then launched down the sewers. The ball of metal took out all incoming robots and blocked off the entrance, making the group safe for now. Maya and Axton ran up to them with huge grins. Salvador laughed with glee and high fived Axton, then turned and hugged Maya.

Maya looked down with disgust and said, "What did I say?"

Salvador backed off and rolled his eyes, "That if I ever touched you, you would pull my intestines out through multiple orifices."

"That's right," said Maya

"Nice work soldiers," Roland complimented, "that was great teamwork. Did you find our getaway ride?"

Axton nodded, "Marcus is parked out there, all we need to do is jump in the bus and we are outta here!"

Everyone cheered except Luke; he knew what was waiting on the other end. This was his last chance to save Lilith, to show her that he loved her and would sacrifice everything for her. He walked over to Lilith, who was still celebrating and tapped on the shoulder. She turned and hugged him, "Oh Luke can you believe it? We're finally getting out of here!"

"Lilith," Luke urged, "I think we should stay behind for a bit. Lilith looked at him curiously.

"Why would we do that?" she asked, "freedom is within our reach!"

"Lilith you just need to believe me, what lies beyond here is not what you want!"

Lilith was tired of this. She was tired of Luke constantly trying to be overprotective of her, acting like she couldn't fend for herself. Lilith got right in Luke's face and started to give him a piece of her mind. "How do you know what I want? You constantly think you know what's best, but you don't. You wanted us to leave this group to go off on our own again but I won't! I don't want things to go back to the way they were! I like our new family!"

Luke was shocked at her outburst. Her words stung more then anything; he had become something he had always hated to protect her. Luke trembled in hurt and anger, his rage rising up. Lilith saw her mistake and immediately regretted what she had said, "Look Luke, I'm sorry. It's just…"  
"No, it's fine!" Luke yelled, "Go off with Roland and forget about me! I was with you always Lilith and how do you repay me? You throw me away like trash! Go out there; see what lies ahead! But when you find you don't like what you see, just know that you shunned the one who loved you!" With that Luke turned and left, leaving the group's fate in the hands of Handsome Jack. Lilith cried and called for Luke. She had lost so much in her life; she didn't want to lose her best friend. Roland walked over to her and put his hand on her shoulder, "C'mon Lilith, we should get going." With one last sob, she nodded and followed the group out of the sewer and into her new life.

"Haha, freedom!" yelled Salvador once they exited the manhole.

Mordecai smiled and flipped off the watchtower, his final gesture to Jack. "Fuck you Handsome Jack, we're outta here!" laughed Axton, drunk on there victory.

"Watch your language Axton, those sort of words could get you in trouble," scolded a voice

Axton laughed at what he thought was a joke from Mordecai and said, "oh be quiet Mord, you know he hate the guy just as much as I do!"

"Uhh, Axton," said Mordecai nervously, "I didn't say that…"

Axton turned and saw what could have been the worst possible sight ever. Blocking the exits was another army of loaders, all with their guns pointed towards them. A holographic display of Jack walked over towards the Raiders, clapping sarcastically. "You didn't actually think you were getting out of here, did you?" Jack chuckled

Roland gritted his teeth, Jack knew their plan all along. Axton jumped in front of Maya, putting himself between her and the robots. "Nice try lover boy, but that siren is mine. Now give her here and turn yourselves in or we're gonna have a problem."

Axton gave him a cocky smile, "If you think I'm moving for an ugly son of a bitch like you, you're just as crazy as we are. Now I see the nickname Handsome Jack is clearly sarcastic!"

Jack's hologram frowned and said, "Shoot him in the knee then capture them. Don't kill any of those bandits though, I have special experiments for all of them."

One of the loaders shot Axton in the legs and he fell to the ground. Maya cried, "Axton!" as she quickly knelt down to tend to him. Jack laughed and motioned for the robots to move in. All the Raiders were captured on the spot, none managed to escape except Bloodwing, who flew off reluctantly due to Mordecai's pleads for her to save herself.

**Well I hope you enjoyed the chapter, remember to right those reviews and maybe give it a favorite if you really liked it!**


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: Here is the tenth chapter of my story! It isn't as action packed as the others but still good, I thought the story could use a break from the spiral of events that have been happening lately. Enjoy the read and remember to leave a review!**

** DiosSegador: I was hoping for that reaction :)**

** Isaac Clark aka Reven: Thanks, that chapter was one of my favorites too! Hope you enjoy this one just as much!**

Chapter Ten: The Imprisonment

Roland woke up to find his hands in shackles and his body full of pain. He looked around and saw that he was sitting in a prison cell; his plan had failed. Roland hung his head, he had failed his team, he had failed himself, worst of all he had failed Lilith. Who knows what Jack would do to them now that he had his hands on them, probably some horrible unspeakable experiment that would most likely drive them insane.

"Roland!" He looked up and saw Lilith in chains on the other side of the cell.

"Lilith, I'm sorry I failed you. I've let you all down…" Roland said dejectedly

Lilith walked over to Roland and sat beside him. "Don't worry Roland, whatever happens we have each other. You've done a great job as leader and I'm sure you can come up with an escape plan again."

Roland put his arm around her and pulled her close. Lilith was unlike anyone he had ever met, she was smart, kind, and always knew what to say. Lilith smiled faintly at him, holding him close to try to keep warmth in their cold cell. Roland thought, maybe it was possible to escape this place. He just needed time to think and plan and an opportunity. "Lilith, can you phase walk through these shackles?"

"I probably can," answered Lilith, slightly embarrassed she hadn't thought of that before. She focused herself and phased right through the shackles. Lilith rubbed her wrists, which were red and chafed from the shackles.

"Good job," said Roland, "now if you can undo my bindings at least we'll be able to walk in this inescapable cell." Lilith broke off Roland's shackles and he got up and embraced her. The two held the hug until a voice called over to them, "Get a room you two!" They looked over towards the cell across from them and saw Salvador and Brick in straight jackets.

"Roland, we gotta get out of here before the start testing us!" yelled Brick, trying to wriggle out of his straight jacket. Roland looked around to try to find something, anything to help them escape.

"Where are the others?" asked Roland

"They took Axton to watch Maya get used for whatever Jack has in store for her. Mordecai, Moxxi, and Gaige are in the cell next to us and Zer0 is alone in that cell over there. _Zer0_, thought Axton,_ he and Angel weren't there for the escape, maybe he knows something he hasn't told us_.

"Zer0!" called Roland. Zer0 turned his head towards his leader in acknowledgement. "Why weren't you there when we tried to escape, what were you doing that was more important than sticking with the team!"

"Yeah," said Lilith, starting to get angry too, "where you helping Jack capture us for some sort of reward?!"

"Does it look like I was rewarded?" Zer0 said coldly. Everyone looked over to him; surprised he had actually spoken up.

"Well where were you then?" asked Mordecai, still skeptical

Time to come clean, "I was never captured in this prison, I was here to assassinate the president and CEO of Hyperion, Handsome Jack"

That shut everybody up. Roland, after a few seconds of silence, finally spoke up, "Handsome Jack, is the president of the Hyperion Corporation?"

Zer0 nodded painfully, "I didn't know either until… until she told me."

"She who?" asked Lilith

Zer0 didn't even want to say her name. She didn't deserve his words, but he decided to say the name anyways, "Angel."

"Wait, wait, hold on, Angel was your contractor?" Moxxi said in disbelief, "That girl was so innocent and kind, she wouldn't want anybody dead!"

"That's what I thought until she stabbed me in the back…" responded Zer0, trying not to think too hard about what had happened. She had meant the world to him, but everything was fake. He let her play him, manipulate him, and then betrayed him for that horrible man. Roland punched the wall; it was Angel all along! Angel was the one who told Jack about their plan and deactivated the shields. They had trusted her blindly and now they were paying the price. He couldn't believe he had been so stupid! Lilith put her hand on his shoulder to try to calm him down but it was no use. "That bitch!" yelled Roland, "We should have never trusted her!"

"Hey Roland, I think we're missing someone," said Salvador, trying to rack his brain and remember who.

"Luke," responded Lilith, "he and I got into a fight so he turned around at the last second! He may have gotten away!"

Roland sighed in relief; at least they had someone on the outside they may be able to count on.

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"Good job team Jack!" Handsome Jack said as he slowly clapped. Standing in front of him were Angel and Luke, the two betrayers. "Angel," he continued, "honey I'm so proud of you! You really pulled through with that Zer0 guy!" Angel turned away, her eyes welling up. "and Luke! Stellar job luring those bandits into that trap, you really out did yourself. To bad Lilith wouldn't come with you, but hey you're still off scotch free!" Luke lowered his head, Lilith would see his reasoning and she'd leave his place with him. It would be just like old times again, he promised himself. Jack walked out of the room and came back with Maya. He was dragging her by a metal collar around her neck, which Angel immediately recognized as the control collar. Maya was trying to struggle and fight him, but the collar was prohibiting her from using her powers.

"This right here, is the key to the next step of my plan!" Jack proudly proclaimed, "Maya, say hello to my two most loyal employees." Maya looked up and her jaw dropped when she saw Luke and Angel. "You bastards," she growled, "YOU BASTARDS!" As she yelled the last part her eyes turned blue and her siren wings shot out of her back. She lunged at the two but was immediately grounded by a shock administered by the collar. She got up panting, clearly the numerous amount of shocks Jack had given her had taken their toll. "You sold us out to this bastard. We could have been free, but you betrayed us!"

"Is Lilith OK?" asked Luke; still focused on making sure his siren wasn't hurt.

Maya gritted her teeth, "Of course she isn't, she's been imprisoned with the rest of us! But what do you care, you're just a traitorous rat…"

"I care because I love her and I want to make sure she's safe!" yelled Luke

Maya smiled and said in the most biting tone she could muster, "well I'm sure she'll think about that when she's in bed with Roland."

"SHUT UP!" Luke kicked Maya, knocking her over. But that didn't faze her, she was still laughing at him. Luke reared back for another punch when Jack stopped him. "You idiot, we need her alive. If she isn't I'll have to use your precious Lilith and I don't think you want that!"

"Why didn't you just use Angel in the first place, she's a siren," sneered Luke

Jack suddenly got infuriated once he heard those words come out of Luke's mouth. He kneed Luke in the stomach then kicked him in the face. "Don't you, EVER say that!"

Luke staggered up, dazed and confused about what had just happened. Jack snorted and walked towards the door. Before he left he turned and said, "You two make sure the prisoners don't escape, I'm going to get Maya here set up." With that he left Angel and Luke alone in his office. Luke looked over to Angel, who was hanging her head in shame. He frowned, isn't this what she wanted? She was the one who chose to help Jack. "What are you so upset about?"

Angel looked up, her eyes red from crying, "What am I upset about?! I just betrayed the only people who have actually cared for me and they probably never want to see me again! You should be upset too!"

"I've betrayed no one," said Luke, "Lilith is safe and I never cared for the others. All that matters is her safety."

Angel laughed, "You think she's safe? In here she will never be safe! You are so blinded with jealousy and possessiveness that you never realized you had a chance to escape this place!"

"There was no chance, even without my help Jack still would have captured them!" yelled Luke

"You don't know that! You should have left with the others while you had the chance instead of believing Jack!"  
Luke was mad now, "Oh, and here you are, talking like you're on some moral high ground here! Don't forget you betrayed them just as much as I did."

"I did, and not a minute goes by where I wish I hadn't! But at least I'm willing to accept that I made a mistake instead of trying to stay under the illusion that what I did was for the greater good!"

"I'll kill you," threatened Luke

"You think I'm scared of you?" Angel said, "If you so much as lay a finger on me Jack will have you killed in many horrible ways."

Luke hated to admit it, but he knew it was true. For some reason Jack was extremely protective of Angel, when he even brought up the idea of hurting her he had gotten the beating of his life. Luke sneered at her and stormed out of the room. He was doing the right thing. He was protecting Lilith. Angel watched him walk away. She had to right her wrong somehow.

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Zer0 sat in his cell and stared at the wall. For some reason staring at it brought him peace. He studied its design, every crack and every brick. He was honestly ready to die; he just hoped it would be quick. He heard footsteps behind him and turned to see what their source was. Behind him was the one thing he never wanted to see again, the demon. Pain shot through his head as memories from the events from nights ago returned to him. He turned his head back towards the wall.

"Zer0," said Angel, "I'm sorry for everything." Zer0 still stayed silent, staring at the wall like he had been doing for the past two days. His silence was more painful to her then anything. "Zer0, I had no choice. You have to understand!" Again, Zer0 was silent. "Zer0," pleaded Angel, "Zer0 say something! I don't know what to do!"

Zer0 finally responded, "There's nothing left to say."

Those five words hit Angel like bullets, shattering her spirit, "Please forgive me, I want to help you!"

"Stop talking to him!" Angel turned towards the voice and saw Roland glaring at her through his cell.

"Roland, I'm so sorry…" apologized Angel

Roland shook his head, "save it, I don't want your apology. I don't know why you betrayed us but I should have never trusted you."

Angel started to cry, "please Roland, tell Zer0 to at least speak with me!"

"Why, so you can hurt him more then you already have!" yelled Roland, almost waking Lilith, who was sleeping in her bunk.

"I know what I did, but I need to talk to him," Angel said calmly

"No, now just leave us be. The sight of people like you makes me sick" Roland said as he too turned away from her. Angel begged to Zer0 with her hands covering her face, "Please talk with me. I need your help."

"Fine, let's talk." Angel looked up and saw Zer0 standing over her from behind his containment field. Zer0 said, "Let's talk about how I trusted you and you betrayed me." Zer0's voice started to gain strength as he continued, "Let's talk about how I told you everything and you betrayed me!" Zer0 then yelled, "ABOUT HOW I LOVED YOU, AND YOU BETRAYED ME!" Angel's tears stopped as she knelt in front of him in shock and silence. "You have nothing to say, that's what I thought. I ended up helping you not because I wanted to be paid, but because I cared for you. But now I've learned from my mistake and I will improve. Watch where you step Angel because I will escape the confines of this prison and once I do, you and Jack will never be safe again." With that Zer0 turned around and sat back down staring at the wall. He would get revenge, this he was sure of. Angel got up and slowly backed away, the love of her life had just issued a death threat to her.

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Roland had to figure out a plan, they weren't going to survive long at all in here, and who knew what awful things Jack had prepared. He and Lilith sat together and tried to think up of something, anything that could get them out. Roland had told Lilith all about how Angel had come down to visit them and what had happened with Zer0. Lilith was shocked and angered that Angel had the nerve to show her face again after what she had did to them. Roland seemed to have calmed, but after the visit he was even more motivated to find a way out and get revenge on Jack and all those involved with him. They were going to bring him to his knees somehow.

"We could have Zer0 turn invisible and when the guards come to check if he's still in his cell we could strike," suggested Lilith

"No," said Roland, "they already know Zer0 can turn invisible, it would be useless to try and trick them that way."

"Well maybe we can contact Luke and see…" Roland knew where this was going. He had accepted that Luke was gone, but Lilith couldn't seem to let go. Lilith kept hoping that Luke would come back for them, of course unaware of the unfortunate reality.

"I'm just saying he could come back," she insisted

Roland shook his head and said, "Lilith he's probably off this planet right now. That's what the smart thing to do would be at least."

"No," yelled Lilith, "he would never leave me! I've known him my whole life, he has protected me from everything that wanted to use me or hurt me and he won't stop now!" Lilith couldn't believe Roland had given up on her friend so easily; it was simply infuriating!

Roland was getting annoyed by her constant insistence and responded harshly to this outburst, "Lilith he's not here! He's not with us right now! I'm trying to get us out of here and all you can focus on is him!"

Lilith realized he was right, she may have had more feelings for Luke then she thought. This realization only made her angrier. "Why shouldn't I be, he's my best friend and I love him! I can't live without him and if you can't accept that…"

Roland turned away, hurt by what she had said. She immediately realized what she had said and regretted it. "Roland I'm…" Roland just shook his head and walked to the other corner of the cell, pulling out his knife and carving out an escape plan. _Nice one Lilith, real smooth_, she thought.

"Hey Lilith," Lilith looked to the cell next to her where she saw Mordecai standing.

"Now's not a good time Mordecai…" she said

"Look Lilith, if it's any consolation to you I do think Luke is probably trying to help us," Mordecai said trying to cheer her up

"I know, if only you could convince Roland…"

Mordecai shook his head, "You didn't let me finish. I think he's trying but we can't rely on him to get us out. Roland was partly telling you the truth, in here we are basically on our own."

"But you just said," Lilith objected

Mordecai held up his hand motioning for her to hold on, "I know what I said, but the point is we need to not focus on emotions right now and figure out a plan to get out. As I've learned a good sniper waits patiently for the perfect shot, then when it presents itself he strikes with unparalleled accuracy. You can't take a good shot if you are preoccupied by other things. So just try not to think on Luke to much and instead think of an escape plan."

Lilith decided Mordecai was right, all that mattered was the escape, and if emotion clouded her judgment she wouldn't be able to help.

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Salvador sat in his cell, waiting for the right timing. He knew a chance would show itself if he just waited. The thought of the carnage he was ready to cause made him smile madly, the destruction that was soon to come. He heard footsteps coming down the hall and voices.

"God I hate this job," said one of them

"Yeah," complained the other, "why do we always get stuck feeding the crazies and mutants?"

"I don't know." The two figures, which turned out to be Hyperion soldiers rounded the corner and started to walk towards the cells with a bucket of foul looking food. Salvador grinned, _showtime_.

"Hey putas!" The two soldiers looked around and saw Salvador sitting in his straight jacket giving them a crazy grin. They began to start walking again when Salvador called over again, "Hey, putas, I'm hungry!" The soldiers laughed and said, "We were gonna feed you, but then you called us bitches, so you can go hungry."

Salvador shook his head, "What, are you two too scared to come in here with me even when I'm restrained like this."

One of the soldiers started to tense up, _target acquired_. "Oh come on, you guys are soldiers! Either they've started to recruit dirty nomads or Hyperion's just lowered the bar!"

"Watch you mouth, I come from a nomad family!"

Salvador laughed, "So does that mean your mother is you sister, or under that helmet you're just plain ugly!"

"Be quiet…"

"Or what are you gonna do? Not feed me? Teach me a lesson from the other side of this force field? Hahaha, you should even be ashamed to call yourself a nomad!"

The soldier had had enough of this. "Hold this," he said to the other as he gave him his gun, "I'm gonna teach this punk some manners"

The other started to protest, "Uhh I don't think…" but it was too late, the nomad soldier opened the force field and walked in the cell. He smiled at Salvador and said, "I'm gonna enjoy this."

Salvador stretched his neck and smiled, "bring it on!"

The soldier through a punch at him, but Salvador dodged with surprising dexterity. He then rammed into the nomad soldier, knocking him on the ground. The other soldier started to pull out his gun, but Salvador was too close. Salvador kicked the man in the balls and used his head to break his back. Salvador then turned to the nomad soldier, who was just getting up and lunged at him, biting his neck. After a bloody battle, Salvador had managed to kill the two soldiers. He bent over and used the soldier's gun's bayonet to rip off the straight jacket. He then walked over to Brick, who had somehow slept through the whole fight and woke him up.

"Hmmm, what is it?" asked Brick, dazed and still tired. Salvador smiled and held up the soldier's key card, "Time to bounce amigo!" Once Brick escaped his straight jacket they walked over to Roland and Lilith's cell. Roland walked over and smiled as the shield confining them went down. "Good work with step one," he said with a confident smile, "now for step two."

**A/N: Time for another prison break! Remember to leave a review and thanks for reading!**


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: Well time for escape attempt #2! This chapter is a little more action based, but still has some good touchy moments. Hope you readers enjoy the new chapter!**

** Blu: Glad you like the story, and I do plan to have a criminal revolution at some time, don't worry!**

** BubbyGum24: I agree, Luke does have a creepy obsession with Lilith, but that's all part of his character.**

** smiley117: As far as the LilithxRoland relationship goes, you'll just have to keep up with the story to find out ;)**

** all readers: Just so you know Zer0 isn't talking in haiku anymore not because I'm lazy, but because of character development. I just wanted to make sure that was clear.**

Chapter 11: Step Two

"Maya!" Axton struggled against his chains as they threw the drained siren into the cell with him. Axton dragged himself over to her; things were not looking good. Maya started to stir, much to Axton's relief, and sat upright. Axton immediately put himself next to her so she could lean on him. Maya coughed as she started to gain more consciousness, her energy had been nearly drained. "Axton," she rasped, "Axton I can't take much more of this." It was true, her skin was starting to lose its color and her tattoos were starting to fade. "It'll be ok honey, the others are coming up with another plan to save us, I'm sure of it," reassured Axton.

"Alright, but Axton if I don't live through this…" Maya gasped

Axton shook his head, trying to hold back tears, "stop, if they come to try to take you again I'll fight them off no matter what they have!"

Maya smiled, he may be stupid, cocky, and arrogant, but he cared so much about her. Before Axton she had felt alone; the monks she had lived built her up to seem like an angry deity, all feared her. When she found out the monks had been using her to charge a ridiculous tithe she lost control. The whole reason she ended up in jail was that she killed all of the Order of the Impending Storm.

"Axton, thank you for everything. You have been so good to me…" said Maya with a faint smile

Axton looked down at her and tried to muster his usual cocky smile, "and I'm gonna keep being good to you. I'll get you out or die trying"

"Axton," coughed Maya, "they were using me to charge some sort of artifact… I think Jack's whole plan may revolve around that thing."

"What, a relic? Why would Jack want something like that?" asked Axton, still holding up Maya's head.

"I don't know, but whatever it is it can't be…"

"Hey you in there!" she was cut off by a Hyperion soldier, "get on the ground and don't move, we're coming in there. The two turned towards the cell door and saw a Hyperion scientist accompanied by two soldiers. The scientist smiled and said, "are you ready to continue Maya?" Axton was not going to have any of that. He stood up; his hands still cuffed in front of him and said, "You aren't going to take her. Not over my dead body." The scientist shook his head and chuckled, then waved to his guards to attack. There was a sudden gasp, everyone looked towards one of the guards who had a katana blade sticking out of his chest. The other guard turned around, but was too late. Brick grabbed him and broke his neck like a toothpick, then threw the soldier aside. The scientist backed away from the former prisoners, holding his hands up in surrender. Axton wrapped the link that connected his cuffs around the scientist's neck and started to strangle him. "How's it feel to have the life drained out of you doctor? Not good I'm sure," gloated Axton as the scientist gasped for air. He finally collapsed after the last breath was pulled from him, dropping his all access key card. Roland walked in and pocketed the key card, then turned to address Axton and Maya. "Are you two OK?" he asked

Axton nodded, "Now that you're here. Maya is not doing so hot though, I think I may need to carry her out."

Maya stood up shakily as she objected, "I can walk on my own, I just need to regain my strength. That machine took a lot out of me."

Lilith ran to help her up as Roland turned to address the raiders. "Alright team," he said, "now that we're all together we can finally leave this hell hole. Here's the plan, to escape this place we're gonna need a mode of transportation. Brick, Salvador, Gaige and I will go to try and find the schematics for this building to find the garage. While we do this Axton, Lilith, and Moxxi will find a place to protect Maya while we do or until she can regain her power. Zer0 and Mordecai, you two go find us some… insurance… that we get out safely." Everyone nodded, except Mordecai who asked, "Umm, Roland, what kind of insurance do you mean?"

Roland said, "Just follow Zer0. I'm sure in his line of business he knows exactly what I'm talking about."

Zer0 nodded and motioned for Mordecai to follow him. Mordecai shrugged and ran after him. Lilith, Axton, Moxxi, and Maya ran off to find a safe place until Roland and the others found the garage. Roland motioned for Brick, Gaige, and Salvador and the four ran off to find the map. Roland opened up his echo log channel and told everyone else to do the same so they could keep in touch once shit hit the fan.

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Jack sat in his office sipping a drink while relaxing by his indoor Jacuzzi. Damn he loved being rich. Suddenly he heard an urgent knock on the door. Slightly annoyed that his relaxation time had been interrupted, he put on his usual attire and went to see who it was. When he opened the door he saw a lone cowering soldier. Jack looked around and saw a couple soldiers hiding around the corner, peeking out to watch their friend tell him whatever they wanted. "Yes?" Jack said in an annoyed tone of voice.

"Well, um, sir, you see…" stammered the terrified soldier

Jack rolled his eyes and yelled, "Out with it!"

"The prisoners have escaped!" the soldier immediately curled into the fetal position, waiting for a messenger's death.

"Well thanks for telling me."

The soldier looked up at Jack in surprise. "So, so you aren't gonna kill me?" he asked

"Hahahahahaha," Jack laughed, "of course I am!" He pulled out a pistol and shot the soldier in the neck. He turned and smiled towards the dead guard's friends and said, "Good plan guys, sacrifice one so the rest can live."

One of the soldiers foolishly walked out from cover and said, "r-really?"

"NO!" Jack shot all of them down and shook his head; it was so hard to find good help these days.

"Luke!" he called through his echo communicator. A couple seconds later, the thief walked in his office, armed and ready. "There seems to be a problem," explained Jack, "and this is it. Our prisoners have managed to escape, including that siren I need to charge the relic."

"Good," said Luke, "then Lilith will be out of your grasp"

Jack sighed and responded, "No, not good! You see I will find them and kill them either way, but whether you help me make the process quicker decides whether your friend Lilith lives or not. Think about it, I have the resources, an unlimited robot army, a badass moon base, and all the money in the world! Now if you think I can't hunt down a couple of people, you are sadly mistaken."

He was right, Jack would find them no matter what. Luke had to do this to protect her; he wouldn't let the Crimson Raiders get Lilith killed.

"Fine," grumbled Luke, "I'll help you. But you have to SWEAR…"

"Yeah, yeah she won't get hurt yada yada, GO!"

Luke ran out of Jacks office and readied his bow.

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Roland, Salvador, Gaige and Brick ran up towards the main floor, gunning down all Hyperion guards that stood in their way. They finally arrived on the main floor, but Jack was not letting the map go without a fight. Right as they reached the top of the stairs they found themselves surrounded by Hyperion robots and soldiers. Roland quickly threw out a turret, which gave them some temporary cover.

"Roland, do you even know where to find a map of this place?" asked Brick ask he tried to hunch down behind the turret's shield.

Roland said, "This main floor works as a sort of museum Jack uses to impress visitors, I wouldn't be surprised if there is a map of the whole building somewhere"

Roland looked around for a map and saw one on the other side of the opposing hoard. Of course. "Salvador," he said, "can you make a distraction while Brick and grab the map?"

Salvador grinned and nodded, "It's what I was born to do!"

Salvador jumped out from behind the turret's shield and started his crazy plan. He stuck both his middle fingers up proudly and yelled, "Bienvenidos a la fiesta pendejos!" He pulled two machine guns and started unloading on the crowd. While Salvador distracted the robots, Roland and Brick snuck over towards the map. "Alright Brick, you know what to do!" said Roland. Brick nodded with glee and ripped the building map right out of the ground. Roland motioned towards Salvador, who was laughing maniacally as he laid waste to his victims. With a disappointed sigh, Salvador followed. When safely hidden Brick threw down the map. Roland nodded towards Gaige, who immediately got to work. "This map has left out a lot, but since I've seen most of the building I should be able to fill in the blanks," she said as she analyzed it. With her sharp robotic claws she scratched all the missing rooms into the map, until finally she had a good guess as to where the garage was. "See here," she said pointing towards one of the rooms, "That's a military supply depot. If I had to guess the cars 'n stuff would be right next to it."

"Good works, now lets go find it then call the others," said Roland.

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Axton, Lilith, Maya, and Moxxi frantically searched for a good place to camp until the garage was found and they could escape. They searched each floor, but were still constantly chased by robots.

"I don't know if there is a good spot in this building," said Moxxi as she gunned down a loader that was chasing them up the stairs.

"Wait," said Lilith, who suddenly had an idea, "what about the roof? It only has one entrance to guard and the only other thing we would have to deal with is the occasional jet loader!" With no better idea the four ran up to the roof. Once they reached it, they opened up the hatch and up onto it. The four looked out and saw the whole prison, no the whole city. "This would be a great view if Jack wasn't trying to kill us right now," joked Axton. Maya began to regain her strength, her tattoos started to glow blue again and her skin regained its color. Suddenly a badass loader busted through the hatch and pointed its guns straight at them. "Fuck," said Axton, "GET READY FOR A…" suddenly he was interrupted as an arrow whizzed by him and went straight through the loader's lens. The robot immediately fell off the roof and exploded midair as it descended towards the ground. The group turned in saw Luke standing behind them; he must have scaled the wall to reach the four. "Luke!" said Lilith in relief. She ran over and hugged him, which made Luke blush a crimson red. "Dude," what's up laughed Axton, glad that Luke was OK. Just as Moxxi was about to greet him, a blue vortex surrounded Luke and lifted him into the air. Everyone was shocked, and turned towards Maya, whose eyes were glowing in anger.

"Give me one reason I shouldn't throw you off the edge right now!" she yelled, the vortex growing more powerful with each word.

Lilith screamed at her, "Maya, what the fuck are you doing?"

"He's a traitor, he sold us out to Jack!" she answered

"No baby that was Angel!" said Axton, trying to calm Maya down. But she wouldn't let go of Luke, so Lilith decided to take action. She ran at Maya and tackled her, causing her to lose her focus and drop Luke. "He's a traitor," yelled Maya, "I saw him with Jack when they had me chained up with that horrible collar!"

Lilith wouldn't believe it; Luke would never do something so awful! She started to get angry at Maya for the accusation when she heard Luke say, "She's telling the truth Lilith." The four looked over in shock at Luke, who had his bow strung and pointed at them. "And you all have to turn yourselves in except Lilith," he continued. "Luke what are you doing?" Lilith asked, still not able to believe what had just happened.

"Saving you!" Luke yelled, "Jack is the freak' in president of the Hyperion Corporation! He will find you no matter how far you run, but he's cut me a deal. If we turn in the rest of the raiders we'll be free to go and also rich! Lilith we could live the dream like we always wanted to." He held out his hand to her, waiting for her to take it and all his work to pay off. Lilith reached and took his hand. Luke sighed in relief, until something he didn't expect happened. She twisted his arm behind his back and flipped him over. Lilith then kicked him over to Axton, who held him up by the neck with one hand. "What are you doing Lilith," he gasped, "We could have been free, together, just like old times!"

Lilith shook her head and glared at him, "No Luke, not now not ever. I will NEVER go with you!" With those words Luke's world shattered, she didn't want to go with him. Suddenly jet loaders flew up onto the roof and surrounded the four, ready to fire. "I hope Roland finds our escape soon!" said Axton as he threw down his turret and started to fire away.

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"This way!" yelled Zer0 as he ran through the guest room floor, slicing any robot that tried to stop them in half. Mordecai followed, ducking and weaving past the flying robot parts that Zer0 had been slashing off.

"Where are we going?" Mordecai asked as he vaulted the lower half of a robot.

Zer0 slashed at another robot, taking off its gun arm, "We're going to get insurance that we can leave safely, and I know just the thing!"

A group of Hyperion soldiers tried to block their way, but Mordecai took all of them out with four well-placed shots. Zer0 jumped wall to wall and got over the dead bodies. Mordecai again just jumped them, using his arms to help push himself over.

"I just hope Moxxi and the others are alright," said Mordecai, worried about his sexy girlfriend.

"They'll be fine," Zer0 assured him. The two ducked under cover as a badass loader broke thought the side of the hall and started to fire at them. Zer0 looked over to Mordecai and asked, "Any ideas?"

Mordecai nodded and said, "Yeah, hold on!" Mordecai looked around and saw a sheet of bent metal from the wall the loader had broken. He breathed, waited a second, and then took the shot. The bullet ricocheted off the wall and hit the loader in its launcher joint. Half of its arsenal fell right off, which gave Zer0 a chance to strike while it was momentarily distracted. He ran towards the loader and jumped on it, sending his katana straight through its lens. Mordecai stood beside him as the monster robot fell. After a fist bump, the two kept running.

Finally, they reached the door Zer0 was looking for. On it was a pair of wings and a halo. Mordecai looked at the door and then realized what was happening. "Hold on, you aren't seriously gonna…"

"Yes," said Zer0, "yes I am."

"But we have to find the insurance,"

"I want my revenge first"

Zer0 kicked down the door and the two saw Angel looking out the window. She turned and saw the Zer0 and gasped, "Zer0, you escaped! Oh thank God, you have to…" Zer0 brought his hand down and slapped her across the face, knocking her to the floor. He picked her up and threw her across the room and drew his sword. Suddenly Jack's voice came over the intercom, "Wait wait, Zer0 we can work something out, just don't kill her." Zer0 kept walking towards the cowering Angel. Jack kept trying, "Seriously Zer0, stay away from her if you know what's good for you!" Suddenly several badass loaders busted through the walls with their guns aimed at Zer0 and Mordecai. "Uhh, Zer0 this revenge thing can wait, lets just get what we need and leave," said Mordecai nervously, but Zer0 didn't stop.

Jack's voice was starting to get shaky, "If you lay a finger on her you and your friends are all DEAD!" Zer0 kept walking towards Angel who was looking up at him with her beautiful blue eyes. "Please stop!" Zer0 kept going. "PLEASE!" Zer0 bent down and picked Angel up by the neck with his sword held out ready to strike. Finally, Jack yelled over the echo communicator, "GOD DAMNIT YOU GET THE HELL AWAY FROM MY DAUGHTER!"

Zer0 froze right as he was about to strike. _Daughter? Angel was Jack's daughter?_ Mordecai seemed just as shocked as Zer0, his jaw was practically on the floor. Zer0 then did something unexpected; he swiftly yanked Angel back off the ground and pulled her towards him. "NO!" yelled Jack, who thought he would kill Angel for sure. But instead Zer0 turned Angel around and pressed his blade to her throat. "You let my friends and I go or else I'll spill Angels blood on the floor!" Zer0 threatened as he put her in between him and the loaders. Suddenly the robots shut down, letting Zer0 and Mordecai walk cautiously out of the room.

"What are you doing?" asked Mordecai

"Angel is our insurance, if we have her Jack wouldn't dare do anything like launch mortars at us. She's our insurance!"

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Up on the roof Moxxi, Axton, Maya, and Lilith were surrounded. Luke was still being held up by the angered commando who yelled at him, "You traitorous bastard! We could have been free!" Luke kicked him in the stomach and jumped away, he enraged by how wrong everything had gone for him and was ready to kill. He aimed an arrow at Axton and said, "Stand down by the order of Handsome Jack! You are outnumbered and out gunned!"

Suddenly a buzzard flew over the robots and blew them all to pieces. Gaige's voice came over its loudspeaker, "Hey guys! We found the garage and got some sweeeeet stuff! Jump on quickly!" Lilith suddenly appeared behind Luke and knocked him down, causing him to lose his shot on Axton. The four ran towards the buzzard and jumped on it, grabbing the landing gear. Luke tried to stop them, but he was to late, the buzzard was already out of reach. Gaige landed on the ground level where they saw Roland, Brick, and Salvador in three light runners.

"Hop in, we're getting out of here!" yelled Roland

Lilith hopped in the car with Roland and asked, "How'd you guys get all this stuff out?"

"Well Jack was threatening to bring the whole building down on top of us, but he suddenly stopped for some reason." Roland answered as he revved up the engine, ready to make the escape.

"Wait," yelled Moxxi, "what about Mordecai and Zer0?"

Mordecai's voice answered her over the intercom, "You guys get going, we have a hostage so that should buy us enough time. Just know that one we start escaping Jack will probably still give chase."

"Hold on, you have a hostage! When I meant insurance I meant something like letting out all the experiments to create a distraction, who did you take?" asked Roland

"Angel, we took Angel. She is Jack's only daughter, so at least that will protect us some during our get away."

"Alright, just make sure you two make it out there, and whatever you do don't let them take Angel and do NOT kill her. She's probably the only thing holding Jack back from leveling the city trying to get us back." said Roland.

The raiders got into their cars and drove off, this was their last chance for freedom and they'd be damned if it failed this time.

**A/N: Well I hope you enjoyed the chapter, remember to leave a review and thanks for reading!**


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: Well here is my twelfth chapter, hope you guys enjoy! This one is pretty much an action chapter, just to give you all the heads up! Have fun reading!**

** Kromatick: I'm glad you like it so much! I try to write chapters whenever I have time, hence the short amount of time it takes me to release new ones. Hope you enjoy this chapter just as much as the last.**

** BubbyGum24: If you liked the action in that chapter, I think you'll like this one.**

** Smiley117: I think all your concerns will be relieved with this chapter my friend.**

Chapter Twelve: Keep Away

The three light runners were ready to go. Brick, and Maya were in one car, Axton and Salvador in another, and Roland and Lilith in the third. Gaige and Moxxi decided to fly overhead in the buzzard and try to give them air support in their escape. They started to drive full speed away out of the prison; nothing was stopping them this time. In almost no time they were out of the prison confines, but Roland knew they weren't out of the doghouse yet, Jack would chase them no matter where they were. "Keep driving everyone, the Hyperion arrest teams are probably not far behind," he yelled over to the other drivers. Just as he finished his sentence five buzzards, twelve light runners, and hundreds of jet loaders were on their tail.

"Shit, lets get moving!" yelled Axton as he swerved between traffic. Gaige slowed her buzzard so it was behind the crowd then let loose barrage of missiles towards the enemy choppers. Three Hyperion Hawk soldiers jumped off a buzzard right as it exploded and started to fly towards the raiders with jetpacks. Two of them landed on a large truck that was beside the raiders and started to take shots. The third flew up ahead and started to fire at them as he flew backwards. Lilith and Maya managed to drive their cars out of the way, while Axton slammed his into the truck, knocking the Hyperion hawks off balance. Right when the truck started to tip, Maya used phase lock to push it off the road, causing the downed vehicle to crush the two hawks. Axton was about to pull out his gun and start to unload on the last hawk when an arrow whizzed by him and knocked the pistol out of his hands. Axton turned and saw Luke hanging upside down from a badass buzzard, setting up another shot. A second arrow whizzed by and almost hit him, but Axton managed to veer out of the way. On top of the arrows they were taking heavy fire from the other cars behind them, things were not looking good. Suddenly a large explosion engulfed three of the light runners and out of the fire flew two motorcycles. On they cycles were Zer0 and Mordecai. The two caught up with the rest off the group, weaving in between enemy cars, Zer0 slashing off tires while he did so. When they got up next to the group they saw that on Zer0's motorcycle, hanging on to him for dear life, was Angel. "Holy shit, you actually took her hostage!" laughed Brick. Zer0 nodded towards him and was about to respond when suddenly a sniper shot nailed Salvador right in the chest. "Agghhh! Bitch!" he yelled has he clutched his bleeding chest. The last hawk had started taking shots at the group with deadly accuracy.

"Sniper!" yelled Roland as he tried to take him out with the mounted turret. The hawk just jetted around the bullets and landed on a large truck with no load on it. Someone kicked the back of Roland's head, which caused him to lose it for a bit. When he refocused he saw Luke had also joined the hawk on the truck, shooting explosive arrows at the group.

"Get me close up to that truck, I'm gonna go teach that kid some manners," Roland told Lilith. Lilith nodded and thought, _Luke this is for your own good._ She drove up right next to the truck with Luke and the Hyperion Hawk. Roland got out of the turret seat and jumped onto the truck. The hawk lunged at him, but he dodged the punch easily and grabbed his arm. He then tripped the Hawk and kicked him off of the truck into the on coming traffic. Roland turned to Luke, who put his fists up, ready to fight. "This is for Lilith," said Roland, cracking his knuckles.

"Ditto," growled Luke as he hit Roland with a pistol. Roland was hit the first time, but managed to duck under the second punch and slam his fist into Luke's stomach. Luke staggered back, but then swept at Roland's legs, knocking him over. Luke jumped on top of Roland, but was met by a forceful kick to the chest. Roland then proceeded to unleash several punches, three to Luke's stomach and one to his chest. Luke tried to block, but Roland just pushed him down and kneed him in the chest. Roland then finished with a roundhouse kick, which knocked Luke off the truck. Luke stopped himself from landing with his jet pack and swooped over the raiders.

"You really don't get it? I don't need any of you alive anymore; all I need to do is take back Angel. After that Jack can level the city, wiping you all out with it!" Luke laughed. He launched an explosive arrow, which blew up the truck Roland stood on, knocking him into the air. Lilith swerved towards Roland and caught him just in time. "Zer0," yelled Roland, "do NOT let him take Angel!" Zer0 nodded and drove ahead, weaving around other cars. Luke went after Zer0, diving in trying to snatch Angel. Three more hawks started to fly ahead to aid Luke. Maya turned and phase locked one, throwing him into a car. Gaige swooped in with the buzzard and started to shoot down the enemy light runners as Moxxi took out the second hawk. The third boosted ahead, but was quickly knocked out by a punch from Salvador while the hawk tried passed his car. "Puta," snorted Salvador as he got back in his seat. Mordecai swerved around and put himself behind two of the light runners. With a well placed shot he caused one of their engines to explode, sending one car flying into the other. Lilith started to drive aggressively and rammed into the side of a armored Hyperion truck that was giving them trouble. "Trap them on the side of the road!" Roland yelled to Lilith. Lilith nodded and slammed into the truck, pushing it into the road rails. Roland chucked his turret box down their gunner hatch and motioned for Lilith to swerve away. Screams were heard from the truck as it started to swerve from side to side and finally spin out. Three jet bots started to fly towards Axton and Salvador's car, laying down heavy fire. Salvador laughed as he pulled a launcher and shot one out of the sky, which fell onto the road and took out an enemy car behind it. "Need some help!" Gaige called down to Axton. She raised her arm and summoned Death Trap, which fell behind Axton's car because of its lack of speed. Two of the Hyperion drivers started to laugh until they saw Death Trap holding on to the backs of their cars. With its enormous strength, Death Trap swung the two cars around and threw them into an unlucky buzzard, which was immediately taken out of the sky. Luke kept diving in, trying to grab Angel, but Zer0 would always swerve to the side every time he got close. Frustrated, Luke pulled out an arrow and shot Zer0's cycle, causing the engine to blow out. The cycle kept on rolling, but if Zer0 wanted to keep his speed he couldn't turn. Luke saw his opening and grabbed Angel, and started to fly off.

"Zer0 help!" she called as Luke flew towards a tunnel. Zer0 mentally willed the cycle to go faster, but it only kept rolling at the same speed. Luke turned and shot the tunnel door controls, causing two giant doors to start to slide closed. Roland saw the obstruction ahead and motioned for Gaige to bring the buzzard in closer. "Everybody on the buzzard!" he yelled, trying to stop them from becoming a bloody splat on the front of the door. Everybody jumped and grabbed onto the buzzard.

"What about Zer0?" yelled Gaige as she pulled the buzzard away.

Roland looked down at the assassin and saw he was going to try to make it trough the crack between the closing doors. "I think he's gonna give chase, just circle around" Roland yelled back.

Zer0 looked up and saw the buzzard fly off, it was now or never. He stood up on the cycle, keeping his balance. Right when he reached the crack he jumped off the cycle and barely slipped through. He rolled once he hit the ground; it was time to kick his enhancements into overdrive. Right when he finished the roll he broke into a sprint. Zer0 sped past cars and trucks at an astounding speed. He jumped and slid under cars as he caught site of Luke flying overhead. Luke looked down and said, "Aw c'mon!" He started to launch a volley of arrows, from which Zer0 jumped out of the way. The two got to a narrow road as Luke flew upwards, trying to escape the assassin. Zer0 started to wall jump his way between buildings, finally reaching the top of the city. He sprinted and jumped between buildings, all the while Luke was still launching arrows at him. Suddenly, Zer0 saw a skyscraper approaching fast, and the buildings forced a sharp turn around it, this was his time to strike. He jumped through one of the skyscraper's windows and disappeared from Luke's sight. Thinking he had lost Zer0, Luke took the sharp turn around the building. Luke heard glass breaking in an instant Zer0 was lunging towards him through the window. He tackled Luke and slammed him against a wall, breaking his jet pack. Luke and Zer0 started to fight each other while they were falling from the incredibly high skyscraper. Zer0 was able to get on top of Luke and started to beat the shit out of him, mercilessly beating his head while the two fell. Suddenly he heard a scream, Angel! Zer0 let go of Luke and saw they were approaching the ground. A buzzard crested over the building and started to make a nosedive after them. The cargo door of the Buzzard slid open and Salvador held his hand out. "Lets go amigo! Leave the bitch behind, we have our way out!" Zer0 wanted to just leave Angel falling, but for some reason he couldn't. He couldn't' believe it but he couldn't bring himself not to save her.

"Make up your mind," yelled Gaige, "I gotta pull her up NOW!"

"Pull back up, we'll be fine!" he yelled to Salvador

Salvador looked like he had a tear in his eye as he said, "Good luck hermano!"

The buzzard swooped up as Zer0, Angel, and Luke got closer to the ground. Zer0 positioned himself next to the wall of a building and launched himself off of it. He shot towards Angel and grabbed her as he approached the building across the street. He pulled out his sword and mentally readied himself. Zer0 stabbed the katana into the side of the building, stopping them almost instantly. Zer0 cried out in pain as the stress from the sudden stop from such high speeds probably messed up his arm really badly. Angel hugged Zer0 for dear life, not wanting to let go. The buzzard came back around and opened the cargo door. All the raiders cheered as they helped Zer0, who was still holding Angel, onto the chopper.

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The raiders found a small shack way outside the city limits to stay for the night and recover from their daring escape. They had taken the night off and decided to celebrate their victory, or at least the ones who escaped without emotional damage did.

"Three cheers for Roland," cheered Mordecai as he raised his bottle, "under his leadership we have escaped from the bowls of HELL!"

Everyone at the celebration cheered and raised their glasses, pushing Roland out in front of everybody. Roland smiled faintly and said, "Thank you everyone, it wouldn't have been possible without you all…"

"SPEECH!" yelled Salvador, quickly getting everyone else to chant the same.

Roland laughed softly and said, "Alright, alright I'll give one. But just know, this isn't going to be a happy one. While we escaped the prison mostly undamaged physically, mentally we all still suffer. The prison was ironically the most lawless place I have ever seen in existence, the horrible treatment that we endured in there I wouldn't wish on anyone. Many of us have been emotionally damaged beyond repair and probably will never be the same. This is why I've elected we break out the whole prison." A silence fell over the group.

"Ummmm, what?" Axton finally spoke up

Roland repeated himself, "I think we should break out the whole prison."

Maya said skeptically, "Roland, you do realize that most of the people in there are like, ten times more insane then we are, right?"

"I know I know, but no matter who they are they don't deserve to be treated like test subjects. Jack needs to be brought to justice for the things he's done!"

Moxxi decided to defuse the situation before people started arguing, "Ok, we'll think about Roland's crazy plan tomorrow, but tonight lets celebrate our first win in a while!"

Everyone nodded in agreement and continued to part, except for Roland who just walked out of the shack to get some air. Outside he saw Lilith looking up at the stars crying. He sat down next to her and put his arm around her.

"You were right," she said, "you were right all along about that bastard!"

Roland pulled her closer and tried to assuage her pain, "I'm sorry Lilith; I know how much he meant to you. I'm sorry it had to end like that."

"Why, why would he betray us like that?" she asked Roland as she buried her face into his chest.

Roland stroked her head and said, "I don't know, but whatever happens just know that I won't let anything hurt you like that again, I promise."

"So quite the commotion you caused back there," Lilith laughed, trying to lighten the mood

Roland chuckled and said, "I said I wanted to go back and break out the whole prison, liberate them from Jack's tyranny."

Lilith looked at him and saw he was dead serious, but she had to make sure, "You're kidding right?"

Roland shook his head, "No, I can't let anyone else go what we've gone through, nobody deserves such horrible treatment. I wouldn't blame you if you wanted to stay…"

"I'm with you,"

Roland looked at Lilith in shock, "are you sure, after all that's happened?"

Lilith put her head on his shoulder, "you're basically the reason I'm alive right now, it's the least I can do."

Roland laughed, "Well if only everyone else had your enthusiasm."

Lilith looked up into his eyes and pulled him into a kiss that lasted for a minute then she pulled back.

"I love you Roland," she said as she leaned her head on his chest.

"I love you too Lilith," he answered, holding her tight.

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Zer0 sat in his room in the small house trying to gather his feelings. What had happened back there? He should have been able to let her die, let her become a bloody smear on the pavement like Luke. Something had stopped him from not killing the person who had caused him more pain and suffering then anyone he had met in his life. The girl had wrenched his heart out and crushed it under her foot; he no longer loved her. No, he hated her. Then why couldn't he let her go? He heard a knock at his door and opened it up to find Angel standing in front of him. Zer0 was about to close it when she stopped him. She walked into the room and said, "Please, can we talk?"

"Haven't we already done this?" grumbled Zer0, not wanting to stay with her

"I just wanted to thank you, for saving my life," she said, trying to get him to look at her

"I don't know why I did,"

Angel finally got him to turn his head towards her and looked him in the red eyes she knew were behind the mask. "Please Zer0, you have to understand. Jack is my dad, and all I've wanted to do for so long is to make him accept me after what happened to my mom…"

"Angel, please don't do this, I can't ever feel the same about you," Zer0 said, unable to turn his head away again.

"I know," she responded, "but I at least want you to know why this happened."

Zer0 sat down with her and listened, trying to get himself to walk away but not succeeding. Angel began her story, "When I was young Jack was different. He was actually a kind and loving father, who was not even very high up on the Hyperion ladder. He and my mom both loved me and we were a happy family. That is, until we discovered I was a siren. When I was around five my powers started to build and I couldn't control them. Jack tried to help me control them so I didn't end up accidently hurting anyone. I was doing fine until something went wrong. My mom and I were in an argument which dad was trying to break up. Things were getting heated and I lost control of my powers, causing the technology in our house to break. A stray power cord swung out and killed my mom, much to dad's and my horror. After that, he hated me and I knew it. I had killed the woman he loved and he couldn't forgive me. He started to turn more evil, more vicious, and slowly went insane. Jack finally broke when his employers threatened to fire him; he killed the president of Hyperion and used blackmail to threaten the board into giving him complete power over the company. Ever since he became Handsome Jack, the most ruthless man in the galaxy, but he was still my father. I have always been trying to redeem myself to him, to try to get my father to forgive me. Now I realize my dad is gone and you are all I have left. Please, give me another chance."

Zer0 was silent, her story was almost more heartbreaking then his, but he had to stay strong. She leaned towards him and started to lift off his helmet, he couldn't let her do this. Right when he was about to stop her, she pulled his helmet off and kissed him passionately. The two held the embrace, and as much as Zer0 hated to regret it, he never wanted to let go.

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"Well what have we learned Luke?" asked Jack

"That none of them deserve mercy, that they're all ruthless bandits."

"Good, you see I was hoping you'd say that after I saved your life. Those augmentations look quite nice on you, not as good as they'd look on me, but still good," laughed Jack

Luke looked at his arm, which was now glowing purple with slag. He felt power surging through his body, power that was almost equal to a siren's. He knew what his new mission was now, to kill the Crimson Raiders. All of them.

**A/N: Well I hope you readers enjoyed the chapter and remember to favorite if you liked it and leave a review!**


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N: Well here is the thirteenth chapter of my story. I have given the characters a little culture shock, it seems like they've been in prison so long it would be interesting to see how they'd respond to the world. Enjoy the chapter and remember to review!**

** deadpool60: Thanks, that means a lot! I really do like how this story is turning out, it's better then I thought it would be originally.**

** DiosSegador9898: I know right! I just thought the couple would be a cool idea, glad you like it so much.**

** smiley117: There will be a climactic battle, but that's all I'm gonna tell ya ;)**

Chapter Thirteen: Salvador the Kid

"So now that we're free we can do one of three things that won't get us arrested again," announced Axton, drunk on his newly found freedom, "We can go to the bar, the mall, or some place to eat because God damn it I'm starving!"

"Something to eat would be nice, I'm always hungry after an intense car chase," joked Lilith

Mordecai took a swig of his fifth bottle today and objected, "I say we go to the bar, vodka counts as lunch!"

Moxxi put her hand on Mordecai's shoulder, "I think you've had enough sweet heart."

Mordecai grumbled something and gave his empty bottle to Bloodwing, who had just recently returned after Mordecai released her, and told her to fill the bottle back up. Amazingly, the bird was able to work the keg and fill it back up; it must have had a lot of practice. It hopped over to Mordecai and tossed him the bottle. Roland motioned for the group to get going and they were just about to leave when Angel jumped between them and the door.

"Are you crazy?" she asked rhetorically, "We're wanted criminals! We can't go out there obviously armed to the teeth and with our regular attire!"

Everyone looked down at their cloths and realized they had mud stains everywhere and even some blood splatters. Most of the Crimson raiders where still not ready to trust Angel yet, even though Zer0 explained her betrayal to them.

"Fair enough, we'll grab some cloths so we can blend in better with the crowd, then get something to eat. Before we go out try to at least get the bloodstains out, we can't afford to raise suspicion. Everyone nodded and went to try and wash their cloths, except Zer0. Roland gave him a curious look and asked, "Ummm, why aren't you going to wash the bloodstains out?"

"Because I'm not getting new cloths," answered Zer0 in his usual metallic monotone voice

"C'mon Zer0, it can't hurt. If you trusted me enough to see your…" Angel then realized how awkward this could potentially get, "on second thought Zer0 can just stay invisible for most of the time."

Zer0 nodded; glad she had decided to stop herself. Roland shrugged and said, "Well if he can turn invisible I guess it's OK."

After an hour the group had washed enough of their suspicious looking stains out and were ready to get some less criminal looking cloths.

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"Why are people looking at me all weird, do I have something in my teeth?" asked Gaige as she and the others walked through the mall.

"Well if I had to take a guess it may have to do with the fact that you have, ya know, a robotic arm and all," Axton said with a mouthful of corn dog. The group was trying to find a place to get some normal looking cloths; they were already getting glares from mall cops. Lot's of things had changed since they got out of prison; the raiders had missed most of the new societal developments while they were in the hellhole.

"I think we fit in a little better in New Haven," said Maya, "people are looking at me like I'm scantily clad." A couple guys walked by her and started eyeing her ass, to which Axton scared them off with a death glare.

Moxxi complained, "you think people are looking at you funny? Honey while my whole ringmaster getup may work with the crazies I think normal people find it a bit risqué"

"To be fair Moxxi, most of us can see your G-string and I'm pretty sure stockings don't count as pants here," said Roland.

Moxxi just grumbled and rolled her eyes, "I guess I should go wash off this makeup, hold on for a second." Moxxi walked off to the bathroom in her usual seductive manner as half the mall was checking her out. Lilith noticed Mordecai was suddenly getting really nervous.

"What's wrong dude?" she asked

Mordecai stammered, "n-nothing Lil, what makes you think that?"

_Damn boys are clueless_, "Well for one you're sweating an ocean"

Mordecai looked down and saw that he was a little damper around the armpits then usual, "Heh, well to be honest I've never seen Moxxi without all that makeup she puts on for the show. I guess I'm a little nervous to see what she looks like…"

"Huh, you know I never have either. It's kinda like how no one's really seen Zer0 without his mask,"

"I think Angel has," Mordecai corrected her

Lilith was a little peeved by this, "What? He'll show the hostage his face but he won't show anyone else?"

"I think there's something between them, I mean you saw the way he threw himself after her during our escape,"

Lilith pouted, "Yeah I guess…"

"Alright I'm ready," called Moxxi. Everyone turned their heads towards her and their jaws immediately dropped. She was drop dead gorgeous even without the makeup, Jesus Christ! She walked over and put Mordecai's arm around her, much to ever guy in the mall's disappointment and said, "Alright lets get going. As they walked to the cloths shop they noticed so many normal people living perfectly innocent lives supplied by Hyperion. None of them knew the horrors the horrible corporation had caused, all the people it had abused and killed in the name of profit. The corruption and the greed that people were unaware of made Roland sick. He had to end this, but was it right to expose these people to what was going on behind the scenes. Maybe he shouldn't release psychopaths in the prison on their perfect world. Most of these people hadn't done a thing wrong, they didn't deserve to know the truth. Something interrupted his train of thoughts.

"Hey honey, how's it hangin with you" Roland turned and saw a bunch of rich kids in polo shirts hitting on Lilith. As much as he wanted to violently regulate the situation he decided Liliht could handle herself.

"Do I know you?" she asked, clearly uninterested in the group

Their leader laughed, "no but you're gonna want to"

Lilith raised her eyebrow, not even giving them a look, "Is that so?"

The polo kids saw this wasn't going to well, so they decided to step up their game. "We'll show you a good time baby, how bout it?"

_Damn,_ thought Lilith,_ even out of prison you can't escape these types_. She turned towards them and slammed her knee right into their leader's groin and said, "There, was that a good time?" in a mock seductive voice. The rich kids ran away whimpering while the rest of the raiders were laughing their asses off. After a couple of dirty looks from the mall cops they shut up for fear of getting arrested again. They finally reached the cloths shop and met together before we go in. "Now I've been away from society for a while, but I remember these places being particularly awful when my mom took me to places like these, so be careful. I guess we'll split up into guys and girls and just try to find some normal looking stuff." Everyone split up into their various groups; Lilith followed Moxxi, Maya, Gaige, and Angel. It was clear Gaige was still a high school girl more then ever when they started to shop.

"Ugh, these cloths are so preppy and mainstream. I want some darker stuff, let's find a goth store or something," she complained

Maya was checking out some pink shirts and agreed, "Yeah this stuff isn't exactly my style, I kinda like what I have on now…"

Moxxi walked out of the dresser and said, "I don't think I look do bad." She had a black and white striped shirt with a LOW v cut and daisy dukes. It was every guy's dream. Although she had made it abundantly clear that she was not ditching the hat, nobody new why but she loved the thing more than life itself. Angel had decided on a white sundress, the girl had to get everything in white. _God I hate how she can look so innocent, yet do such horrible things_, thought Lilith as she tried to put on the most acceptable cloths possible. When they were done they met up with the guys at the counter so they could just leave and get something to eat. All the guys looked pretty good, except for Zer0 whom they couldn't see at all.

"All right that'll be 247" said the cashier

"Oh crap," said Axton, "I just realized something."

"What is it?' asked Maya

"We don't actually have, like, any money. We're practically broke remember?"

Roland slapped himself for forgetting, of course they have no money, they just got out of prison! Now he had to figure out a fast way to make money, but how. "Hey guys look at this!" said Lilith as she pointed towards a display TV.

"Come aboard the Hyperion express, a luxury train raid that will treat you and your family like royalty! The train includes an onboard pool and jacuzzi, a game room, a full bar, and wonderful rooms. Our cooks only the finest meals; you will test only the best on the Hyperion Express! Looking for a job? The express is always looking for new workers; we'll pay you handsomely too! So come aboard, and treat yourself to the good life!"

Lilith smiled, "are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"Of course we are!" laughed Salvador with a wide grin.

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"This isn't what I meant!" yelled Lilith, but the snarls of the skags they were riding and the roar of the train drowned her voice out.

"Wait, so you didn't mean rob the train when you were taking about going to work on it!" yelled Salvador through the bandana that was wrapped around his mouth.

"This may be one of the coolest things I've ever done!" said Axton, who had gone joined Salvador in the Wild West getup. The train's conductor yelled to them, "U'll never get this here shipment of gold Salvador the kid!"

"THAT'S WHAT YOU THINK AMIGO!" Salvador yelled back, firing off two revolvers in the air dramatically.

"Salvador the kid?" asked Roland, who also had a bandanna around his mouth.

Salvador nodded, "I get around, I didn't go to prison for nothing ya know!"

The raiders started to close in on the moving train. _This is possibly the dumbest thing we've ever done, of all time_, thought Lilith as she followed the skag pack closer to the train. "OK DUKINO, LETS TAKE THIS HERE TRAIN FOR OURSELVES!" Salvador yelled, he was having the time of his life. He jumped onto a ladder that led up to the top of the train and motioned for some of the raiders to follow him. Zer0, Axton, Brick, and Roland jumped on, while the rest of the raiders decided to stay on their skags. "Alright amigos," commanded Salvador, "we'll go inside and try to take out any officials that may be able to stop us, you guys go try to disconnect the conductor's train from the rest!"

Axton laughed and whispered to Roland, "I thought you were in charge."

Roland shrugged, "Don't look at me, he probably knows more about train robbery then I do." Salvador threw a stick of dynamite at the roof of the train car and they proceeded to jump down the hole. All the rich families were flipping out, hiding their children and their valuables; Salvador loved it. "Manos al cielo bitches, we're robbing this train!" Axton fired the his revolver in the air and yelled "Vamanos!"

Everyone went silent and Salvador looked at him awkwardly. "Hey, uh Axton. Speaking Spanish is kinda my thing…"

"Oh sorry," said Axton, a bit embarrassed, "I guess I just got caught up in the moment."

Salvador laughed, "It's all good!" He then turned to the people and yelled, "Where's the authority round here? Tell 'em there's a new law in town and his name is Salvador the kid!" A strange man walked into sight with a cowboy hat, a medical mask and a… handlebar mustache on it? "You ain't gonna get away with this Salvador the kid, not while Dr. Ned is sheriff round here!"

Salvador grinned and tossed him a revolver, "Let's go pendejo, pistols at twelve paces!"

Roland was totally lost as to what was happening right now. They were literally robbing a train, and the authorities were playing Wild West with Salvador? This just must be one of those days. Everyone seemed be able to find a barrel to cower behind. The cook slammed the doors to his kitchen shut and put a closed sign over the door. Salvador and Ned stood across from each other with their hands hovering over their holsters, ready to fire at a moment's notice. "Hey masked man," Ned yelled over to Zer0, "why don't ya give us a count down here."

Zer0, who was also fairly confused about what was happening, started to count down, "3…2…" Suddenly a gunshot was heard and Dr. Ned lay dead on the floor. Everyone looked at Salvador who shrugged, "Sorry chicos, I got bored"

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Mordecai, Moxxi, Maya, Brick, Gaige, Lilith, and Angel all spurred their skags to move up closer to the front of the train. The skags ran at surprising speeds and they finally caught up to the front of the train. "You'll never get this here train, never!" yelled the conductor.

"Well how the hell are we supposed to do this?" asked Moxxi

Brick shrugged, "I don't think I've ever actually robbed a train before. I've robbed lots of other things, but never a train."

"Hold on I think I know, there's a pin thing that connects the two trains together! If we can take out that pin we can de-rail the conductor car!" exclaimed Mordecai. He pulled out a sniper rifle and aimed it a little ahead of his target and took a second to breath. He then squeezed the trigger and a bullet went flying out of the barrel of the gun. The pin exploded in sparks and the conductor car became detached from the rest of the train. Maya knew it was her turn now; she focused her energy on the leading car and engulfed it in a blue vortex. She then threw it off the rails, causing it to go flying then roll violently down the hill. "Conductor is down Salvador," Lilith called in on her echo communicator.

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Salvador got Lilith's message and laughed maniacally. He waved to Roland, Zer0, and Axton, who brought out huge sacks, ready to be filled with money. "Alright you rich bastards, EVERYTHING GOES IN THE BAG!" He fired a warning shot, which got the people moving. They were dumping valuables and money into the bag like it was their job. Someone dumped a Clap Trap unit in Roland's bag. He pulled it out and it waved eagerly to him, then he stuffed it back into the bag and gave the person a dirty look.

"I'm sorry, I just work here. It's of pretty high value I think," he wailed

Roland shook his head and walked over to Salvador with the bag full of loot.

"So can we go now?" he asked

Salvador sighed and said, "Fine, alright everybody off the train before it falls off the tracks…" Salvador and the rest solemnly jumped out through the hole they had made and rode away on their skags. "Ummm, before it falls off the track?" said one of the passengers. With a screech, the train de-railed and flew off the tracks. Salvador laughed maniacally as they rode away, "THIS WAS THE MOST FUN I'VE HAD IN SOOOO LONG AMIGOS!"

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The group returned to the mall and bought their cloths with their newly "found" wealth. They finally got some normal looking cloths after all the trouble and FINALLY got a bite to eat. "God this stuff is so much better then prison food," Axton proclaimed a little to loudly. Half the restaurant turned and stared at him, giving him a scared look. "…I bet, better then prison food I bet!" said Axton, trying not to get them arrested. Everyone seemed to accept that answer and go about there normal routines.

"Nice save," laughed Maya as she wrapped her arm around his.

Roland shook his head smiling, "I swear Axton, I thought they were gonna alert Handsome Jack himself!" Everyone laughed and enjoyed their meal and for once, the group felt normal. After dinner, the Crimson Raiders decided to check out all the new stuff that had come up in the normal world. Gaige was begging them to go to one store called the mango store. After hours of begging and pleading, they finally gave in to the group little sister and took her to the store. Once they arrived they were amazed, there were so many incredible technological wonders! Gaige gasped and squealed, "Look, it's the mango echo 5 S! That thing is the pinnacle of mango phone technology!" Lilith picked up the phone next to it and asked, "You mean this thing?"

"No," Gaige scoffed, "that's the 4 S, that was last years model. What an old piece of junk!"

Roland examined the phone and said, "Looks exactly the same to me…"

"It's not, the m-echo 5 S has a better defined voice module and can digi-struct mango smoothies WITH small umbrellas! That's a huge improvement!" Gaige spoke as if Roland had just said something sac religious. She ogled at the echo communicator until she decided, "I want it."

Everyone looked at her funny, until Mordecai spoke up, "uhhh, Gaige, hate to break it to you but I don't think that thing is in our price range.

Gaige started to fume and whispered angrily, "What do you mean it's not in our price range, we just robbed a damn train!"

"Girls got a point," Moxxi laughed, "plus I'm sure I can get us a discount…" She walked over to the nerd running the cash register and grabbed him by the tie and pulled him close. "Hey good looking, I was wondering if you could do me a favor," she purred in her best seductive voice.

"Uh-um, sure what do you need mam," the stuttered the employee

Moxxi then did her best to look sexy and helpless, "My poor sister has wanted the m-phone 5 S for so long, but we don't have a lot of money. It would really mean a lot to me if a handsome man like you could give us a discount…"

"Done! Take it, it's on the house!" the cashier said excitedly, shoving the phone to her. Moxxi gave him a smile and a wink, and then walked out of the store with the raiders. The cashier smiled as she walked away and then looked beside him and saw an intimidating looking bird giving him the death glare. "Hey little guy, how's it going" he said as he reached out to pet it.

"Man, I'm surprised you were able to keep your cool in there Mord," Roland congratulated as they walked out of the store.

"Yeah," laughed Mordecai, "kept my cool…"

Suddenly they heard the cashier scream "AAAAAHHHHHHHH MY BLOOD! IT CLAWED OUT ALL MY BLOOD!"

The raiders decided to speed up a bit, Bloodwing soon caught up with them. Mordecai pat his bird on the head lovingly while it adorably tried to pick flesh from its beak. They continued to look around and see what else had happened while they were gone.

Angel suddenly saw something that made her squeal with joy. She grabbed Zer0's arm and pulled him out of invisibility and tugged him over to what had gotten her so excited. The rest of the raiders shrugged and followed the two until they had left the mall and gone a few blocks down. "I think I've found a better place for us to stay for the time being " said Angel as she led the group to her destination. They looked up and saw an incredibly nice resort hotel; it looked like freaking paradise! "This place is the vista hotel, when I was young I went here all the time with my family. It's so nice and they'll treat you like kings and queens. Plus, I'm pretty sure we can afford it after we robbed that train!"

"This isn't a trap, is it?" Roland asked hesitantly

Angel looked hurt, "No, I'm done helping Jack. I'm your willing hostage at this point, but we've gotta stay here!"

Roland shrugged and looked at everyone else. Everyone seemed to like the idea, since most of them had never tasted luxury before. "Alright," he said, "let's check it out."

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Luke jumped from building to building following the group. This would be easy, all he had to do was assassinate them and take Angel back to Jack. Especially with his new powers, they didn't stand a chance. In a purple smoke he teleported down to the street across from them and changed his appearance to a normal bystander. Jack had given him unimaginable slag powers; he was practically beyond human now. No one could tread on him, steal from him, or hurt him. He was the apex predator, the top of the food chain. He was ready for his revenge, on Roland for taking Lilith, on Zer0 for breaking him, and most of all, on Lilith for ripping his heart out and crushing it under her foot. She was right; it would never be like old times. He followed the group until he saw them walk into a luxury hotel. He teleported across the street and followed them in. The lady at the front desk looked at him as he walked in. H realized she probably was waiting for him to pay, so he pulled out the card Jack had given him and used it to by a room. He gave the card to her and she slid it through the scanner. She gave it back and said, "enjoy your stay Mr, umm, Romantic Retard?" _Damnit Jack_.

"Check me in under the name Saturn," he said as he took his key card and walked to his room. He opened it up and looked around, he had to admit it was pretty swanky, but that's not why he was there. He pulled the Hyperion mask out of his bag that Jack gave him and examined it. It only had one eye, which looked like a red scope. It was the classic Hyperion yellow and white and was in the shape of a skull. He put it on and opened his eyes. He saw everything, the amount of power he could use before exhaustion, his arrow count, and even his target list with check boxes beside them. _I wonder if this is what Zer0's helmet is like_, he wondered as he looked around with his infrared vision. He spotted the raiders in the floor below him; his targets were so close. Luke calmed himself and decided he would wait for the perfect time to strike, and then… they wouldn't know what hit them.

**A/N: Well thanks for reading the chapter and I hoped you liked it! Remember to leave a review and a favorite if you really liked it.**


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N: Well this story is starting to come to a close, but this isn't the last chapter! Enjoy and remember to review!**

** deadpool69: Yeah when I started this story I knew I had to put Dukino in there somewhere. The grandson of Skagzilla deserves it!**

** BubbyGum24: I thought that scene was funny too, I always like having Gaige act like a teenage girl just to remind everyone how young she really is.**

** Killuminator: Glad you're enjoying the story! Lately I've been finding myself with tons of free time so whenever I can I try to write up a chapter. Hope you enjoy this one!**

Chapter Fourteen: The Relic

"So then I told my overseers, seen them, I barely know them! Or I think that's how that joke goes, hold on."

Everybody groaned as the claptrap unit fumbled to recover the joke he was trying to tell. "God can we please just kill the thing already!" sighed Lilith, who was getting really annoyed with the little robot always hitting on her all the time.

"We can't fire guns in here, and if we try to kill it I have a feeling it's gonna scream and attract unwanted attention," said Roland, rubbing his temples trying to ignore the thing.

"We could always turn it into a mini fridge," suggested Salvador. Everyone seemed to be in agreement with this.

Clap Trap obviously heard that and wailed, "Oh Sphincters! Please don't hurt me!"

"AHHHHH I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!" yelled Brick. He ran up to Clap Trap and punched him in the face, sending the robot flying into the wall. His tray popped open right when he hit the wall and out flew a strange stone relic with glowing purple lines. The Crimson Raiders gathered around the strange artifact and examined it curiously. Suddenly Angel realized what it was and gasped, falling backwards away from the group. Everyone looked at her like she was crazy as she got up shakily. "How, how did you get that?" she asked with fear in her voice.

Roland looked at the relic the looked at Clap Trap and said; "I guess it was inside the little guy the whole time. Zer0 then remembered the Clap Trap blueprints he had stolen from Jack, could this be the thing he was meaning to build? "Angel, I remember stealing sheet of paper that looked like blueprints for a clap trap robot. Could this be the one Jack was building?" he asked

"It definitely was, but the robot wasn't what was important, it's that relic over there," she answered

Maya looked at it and said, "Yeah this thing looks familiar, I think I've seen it somewhere…" Maya reached out to touch it, as she reached Angel screamed, "Don't touch it!" It was too late, Maya lightly poked the thing and it sent out a pulse that threw the whole group back. Everyone got up, disoriented and confused. "What, what are we doing here, what is this thing?" asked Maya. Everyone looked at her, which she soon noticed. "What?" she asked, slightly annoyed.

"You don't remember anything?" asked Roland, who was really confused

"You know to be honest I'm not too sure what's going on here either," said Mordecai. A couple of the other raiders nodded in agreement.

Angel sighed, "That's what happens when someone like a siren touches the lamp. It's a defense mechanism to keep it from being destroyed, anything that has the power to break it instantly looses their immediate memory."

"The lamp?" asked Zer0 as he eyed the artifact curiously

Angel nodded and said, "The lamp is an ancient Eridian relic that is said to be able to summon the Genie once charged with enough power."

"Hold on, hold on. A genie? Seriously? What's it gonna do, sing a musical number then grant us three wishes?" joked Axton

Angel glared at him and answered, "The genie is an Eridian bio weapon; the thing is practically a god. If you gain control of it, it will in have enough charge to do three nearly impossible tasks, which in essence means three wishes. This thing is what Jack's been looking for, and by the looks of it this thing is pretty much charged. Jesus, we could get the genie for ourselves!"

"Hold on, if this is Jack's prized possession, wouldn't he be looking for it frantically?" asked Roland

"I don't know why he hasn't. I think the Clap Trap was meant to deliver the lamp to the summoning location at the Vault of Adventurers and meet up with him there. Once he knows this thing is gone though, he will risk everything to get it back."

Roland picked up the key cautiously, but because he wasn't a siren it didn't react to him as a threat. He placed it in his pack and turned to the group. "We're gonna go get that genie before Jack does. We have the lamp, we have each other, and we have Angel, who I'm sure will lead us straight to the Vault," Roland said as he put on his regular beret. Angel nodded in agreement and looked towards the others.

"Three wishes, giant bio weapon servant, I think we're all in," said Axton, ready to get back to what he loved, fighting and looting.

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"Uhhh sir, you may want to see this," said Handsome Jack's secretary as she handed him a sheet of paper.

"All right honey I'll take a look," said Jack as he slapped her ass when she walked away. He took a look at the paper and started to read, "Train robbed… yada yada Salvador the Kid… something 'bout a claptrap kidnapped… rich families robeed, hehe… Wait. Clap Trap unit missing off Hyperion Express. WHAT!" Jack ripped the paper up and slammed his fist on the desk with anger. "THOSE DIRTY BANDITS TOOK THE LAMP! Oh God, no, NOOOOOO!" I'm not going to let this slide, those child kidnapping PYCHOPATHS are NOT getting out of this alive!" Jack immediately went for his echo COM and called Luke up. Those bastards were going to die. "Yes," said Luke as he picked up his echo.

"Luke, you need to strike now," growled Jack.

Luke saw that he was obviously not in a good mood, but he asked anyways, "I thought you wanted me to wait and then strike?"

"I know what I said, but you have to strike NOW!"

Luke nodded and said, "Alright, they're as good as dead."

"Good," smiled Jack, "make sure to make it as painful as possible for those filthy bandits. I have someplace to be."

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"Hey Marcus, thanks for giving us a ride!" said Roland

"Don't mention it son, but remember if you tell anyone about the incident with the hooker I'll have you all killed," laughed Marcus

All the Raiders sat on the bus readying their weapons for the probable battle to come. Zer0 sharpen his katana next to Angel, who was readying her phase shift. Brick but on his brass knuckles punched his hand menacingly. Axton was tossing his tomahawk up and down as Maya meditated next to him. Gaige was tinkering with her robot arm while she tried to move herself further away from the snoring Salvador. Mordecai was polishing his sniper scope while Moxxi was loading her favorite SMG. Lilith walked down the isle and kissed Roland on the cheek. He turned and smiled to her, if this genie thing could do everything Angel said it could then he could finally live a normal life with Lilith. Suddenly, an arrow came crashing through the window and hit lodged itself into one of the chairs. "What the…" but before Roland could finish, the arrow exploded, launching the bus into the air.

Roland started to come to and saw Lilith shaking him, screaming his name. When he started to get up she cried with joy and hugged him. "Roland you have to get out of here, now!" Roland climbed with her out the window of the burning bus and saw everybody else coughing but ready to fight. "Show yourself coward!" yelled Zer0 as he drew his katana. Their adversary dropped out of the sky and landed before them, smoking purple with slag. As he stood up they saw a yellow Hyperion mask on him and other cybernetic attachments. Then Lilith saw the bow and gasped, it couldn't be.

"L-Luke?" she said, horrified at what had become of him

In a metallic bloodcurdling voice he laughed, "So you remember me…"

"This isn't possible, you fell from enormous heights. There's no way you could have survived that!" said Roland in disbelief.

Luke chuckled again, enjoying their reactions, "Well I don't have you to thank after you let me fall."

"You betrayed us Luke, what were we supposed to do!" cried Lilith angrily

"So then why did you save Angel? Did she not betray you too?" yelled Luke, slag smoke starting to rise in larger quantities.

"What did you do to yourself?" asked Angel, who was just as shocked as everyone else.

Luke turned toward her and sneered, "your dad saved my life. Something that none of you even tried!"

Roland was ready to fight Luke; he wasn't going to hurt Lilith anymore. "I don't know how you came back, but we're sending you straight back to Hell where you belong!"

Luke smiled evilly, "I was hoping you'd say that"

Roland ran towards him, firing a revolver at the same time. Luke snorted cockily and focused his energy. A purple shield blocked every one of Roland's shots. Roland reached Luke and threw a punch towards him, but he suddenly disappeared. Luke reappeared behind him in an instant and punched him in the back of the head. Brick roared in anger, NOBODY HURTS HIS FRIENDS! He came at Luke like an angry train and let loose a punch that could smash through, well, brick. Brick closed his eyes and waited for that satisfying crunch, but when he opened his eyes he saw Luke holding back his fist effortlessly with one hand. Luke grinned and sent out a powerful pulse of slag, sending Brick flying into the wrecked bus. By then everyone had jumped into the action. Axton threw down his turret and started to fire rounds at Luke. Luke shot a slag laser out of his eye and destroyed the turret and through a vortex of slag at Axton. Axton cringed as he readied himself for the impact, but felt nothing. He looked in front of him and saw Maya blocking the vortex, holding the spinning orb of slag back with her bare hands. With a battle cry she pushed the slag back into Luke, who was just as shocked as everybody else. The slag it Luke and knocked him back, but didn't severely injure him like they had hoped. Luke jumped to his feet and snarled. He ran at them, but was met by fire from all of them. When the dust cleared they saw he was gone, suddenly Luke appeared beside them and grabbed Maya with one hand and threw her into the rest. Mordecai charged him with a bowie knife and went hand to hand. He took a swipe at Luke, who ducked under him and punched his hand, causing Mordecai's knife to fly in the air. Luke jumped up and caught the knife, then threw it, hitting Mordecai in the shoulder. Moxxi yelled in anger as she ran at him with her SMG. She started firing but found that she couldn't penetrate Luke's block. He held p his metallic arm in front of him and ran towards her. He lashed out with his fists, but Moxxi did a summersault around it and threw a grenade. Luke shot the grenade down midair with a laser and then shot Moxxi with another. Zer0 ran at him with his sword and started to swipe, but for some reason Luke didn't even pay attention. Luke suddenly punched what seemed like air, but soon it became apparent that he predicted Zer0's deception and had knocked him down with one punch. Roland came back up from behind and tackled Luke. Sitting on top of him, Roland started to punch Luke mercilessly. With each punch he yelled a purpose, "THIS is for betraying us, THIS is for helping Jack, and THIS is for hurting Lilith!" Luke pushed him and ran at him in anger. Axton tossed Roland a tomahawk, which he quickly caught and readied himself. Luke swung at Roland, but he jumped back and brought the tomahawk across Luke's face, cutting off the mask. He looked and horror as he saw Luke's mangled face. Luke laughed at his reaction and said, "Not a pretty sight am I? Well after falling at the height I did this is pretty good!" Luke hit Roland in the stomach and tried to knee him once he buckled over, but Roland blocked and brought an intense uppercut right into Luke's jaw. Luke spat blood and decided enough was enough. His eyes glowed purple and he grabbed Roland. Luke released of blast of slag, knocking Roland back on the ground. Lilith had had enough of watching Luke hurt her friends; she had to intervene. She ran at Luke and went into a phase walk, predicting a punch. What happened next stunned her; Luke grabbed her by the neck and pulled her straight out of phase walk with his slagged hand. "Luke stop, this isn't you!" she gasped as she tried to struggle out of his grip.

"So now you're sorry! Well it's too late now Lilith, too late!" screamed Luke as he tightened his grip. Suddenly he felt his cybernetic enhancements failing, what was happening? He turned and saw Angel, whose eyes were glowing white and siren wings were fully exposed. "His eridium pumps are down, strike now Lilith!" she yelled. Lilith nodded and kicked Luke's chest and phased through his hand. She then ran into him, pushing him to the ground. Luke got up shakily, but his powers were failing him. He felt Lilith's knee hit his chest and knock him down again. She picked Luke up, who was now pathetically weak, and phase blasted him. Luke flew back and hit the ground, trying to gather himself. He saw his bow lying next to him, but before he could grab it Lilith picked it up and snapped it in half with her leg. She looked to him; rage filled her eyes. She said angrily, "Because of our past friendship I will spare you this once, but if I ever see you again… well you better hope I don't see you again." Lilith spat on the ground next to him and walked away, what she had just done killed her inside.

"Great," said Axton, "the slagged freak destroyed the bus, now what are we gonna do!"

Gaig smiled and answered him proudly, "Well while you guys were getting your buts kicked, I was building us an escape. I put the finishing touches on my new digi-struct application and check it out!" Gaige stuck out her arm and a buzzard digi-structed in front of them.

"Let's go!" yelled Roland, motioning for everyone to hop on the buzzard. Once the raiders had loaded up, they started to fly off towards the Vault of Adventurers.

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"There it is!" yelled Angel as the buzzard flew towards the Vault of Adventurers. Roland looked down and saw a huge upside down V shaped arch and under it was a strange shrine. He had seen that symbol before; it was the symbol of the vault. It was in all the legends and stories about the ancient and powerful Eridian race, but he never imagined any of it could be real. Suddenly a huge fireball shot into the sky, strange it looked like it was coming straight at… "GAIGE LOOK OUT!" yelled Roland, but it was too late. The fireball hit the buzzard and took off one of its wings; they were going down! "BRACE FOR IMPACT!" The buzzard crashed into the ground and slid on the snow almost to the alter. Roland climbed out of the crashed heli and looked around. He saw everyone else crawling out and recovering, some of them looked pretty broken but no one was dead at least. He turned and saw the relic, lying on the snow in front of him. Roland crawled towards it, trying to recover the precious item. As he reached out to grab it someone stomped on his foot. He looked up and saw Handsome Jack bend down and pick up the lamp, smiling evilly. "You thought you almost had it didn't. Sorry kiddo you never really stood a chance. Do you think you could really stop the greatness that is Handsome Jack!" he laughed as he took the lamp over to the alter.

"Dad stop!" yelled Angel, who was shakily getting up.

Jack frowned towards Angel and yelled, "I don't need you anymore; you destroyed my life! Now I can finally achieve my dreams and you still oppose me! You are no daughter of mine…"

Shockingly, the words didn't even faze her, Angel just kept walking towards him. Jack shook his head and smiled, "Honey I should have done this a long time ago!" He pulled out a pistol and shot at Angel, his own daughter. She closed her eyes and waited for the bullet to take her, but all she heard was a metallic wail of pain. She opened her eyes and saw Zer0, barely standing in front of her with a bleeding chest. "ZER0!" she screamed as he fell to the ground. She bent down over him and shook him, but he was hurt pretty badly. "I'll be fine Angel, just stop Jack," he coughed, trying to regain his strength and recover. This filled the Crimson Raiders with new life; as they stood up, ready to tear Jack to pieces. Jack looked at all of them, with fear in his eyes. "You're to late!" he yelled. Jack turned to the alter and pushed the lamp into its place at the shrine. The large vault symbol started to glow and from out of the mountain burst a large stone lion looking creature with energy wings. The creature let loose a deafening roar as Jack laughed, drunk on his victory. "Yes, YES!" he yelled, "THE GENIE IS MINE! IT'S ALL OVER FOR YOU! YOU'VE LOST!" The raiders looked in terror as the genie landed in front of them growled. "GENIE MY FIRST WISH IS FOR YOU TO KILL THE CRIMSON RAIDERS, AND ALL WHO OPPOSE THE HYPERION CORPORATION AND HANDSOME JACK!"

**A/N: All the forces are lined up for one final battle, except Clap Trap who is still out cold at the hotel, sorry buddy! Well I hope you enjoyed the chapter, I know it was a bit short but this story is coming to an end, in fact I think the next chapter may be the last. Thanks for reading, and remember to leave a review!**


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N: Well I'm sorry to say, but this is the last chapter of High School for the Certifiably Insane :( But don't worry, for all those who liked this story just know that it won't be my last!**

** All my readers and commenters: Thanks for helping my first story become a success, or at least I thought so. I hope you like the ending and remember to comment. I thank you all for giving my first shot a good and constructive feedback and I hope you will read my stories to come. Thank You!**

Chapter Fifteen: New Save File

"What are you waiting for genie, destroy them!" yelled Jack. For some reason, the genie seemed to be standing menacingly in front of the raiders. "What's going on, is it broken?" asked Axton, still staying on guard just in case. Suddenly a deep and voice that shook the mountains came from the shrine.

"A price must first be paid by the one who holds the lamp!" it bellowed.

Jack looked around and said, "What are you talking about, what's going…" Jack was cut off when the lamp started glowing in the alter and shot a bright white laser at Jack's head. He held his face and screamed in agony as the his face started to glow and smoke came out from the aura that covered him. The raiders watched as Jack removed his hands and revealed his new face, and it was not pretty. A blue vault symbol was burnt into his head, running across one of his eyes, causing it to become milky white. His lips were torn and his eyebrows singed, plus he also had a streak of white running through his hair. Jack saw his reflection in the marble that made the alter and started to laugh madly. He turned to the genie and yelled, "You've taken my looks, NOW TAKE THEIR LIVES!" The genie lurched into action and tried to jump on the raiders.

"Start firing, try to find a weak point, something anything!" yelled Roland as he dove under cover. The genie roared and extended its wings, shooting orbs of slag into the air. The orbs started to home in, causing violent purple explosions whenever they touched anything. "Alright genie! Take 'em out!" Jack cheered from the sidelines. Roland rolled out of the way of one orb and ran backwards as he tried to shoot the rest out of the sky. Mordecai saw what he was doing and gave it a shot. With his incredible precision, he shot down each of the genies orbs, causing them to explode in the sky. The genie swept its tail, knocking all the raiders backwards except Lilith, who managed to phase through it. Axton got back up and threw down his turret and started to lay down heavy fire on the beast. Maya used phase lock to pick up a boulder and hurl it at the genie, but it just smashed through the projectile like it was nothing. Salvador pulled out two bazookas and started to fire a barrage of missiles as he yelled, "All together amigos, we can do this!" Salvador's bravado inspired the rest to not give up and continue the fight, they were ready to fight to the death to stop Jack.

Moxxi ran towards the genie, firing her SMG at its eyes. The beast didn't even seem to notice. With a snarl, the genie brought its foot down on Moxxi, who thought she was done for sure. Brick ran over to her and gathered all his strength. Shockingly, he was able to hold back the genie's foot as Moxxi escaped. "Brick jump out from under it now!" yelled Roland as he tossed the most powerful grenade he had towards it. Brick dove away and the grenade took his place under the stone lion's foot. The genie turned and faced the raiders and was about to fire a slag laser when the grenade exploded, taking one of its feet. The genie stumbled backwards and roared in anger. Just when the raiders started to celebrate, the genies foot reformed right in front of them. "Yes, go genie!" cheered Jack, "you guys can't beat it, the thing is basically a GOD!" The genie continued to trash them, it was practically unstoppable! Gaige and Death Trap ran towards it, but were immediately shut down by a slag laser that it fired at Gaige. Death Trap immediately put itself between Gaige and the beam. The resulting explosion knocked the two back into Brick, who had just recovered from the last attack. Mordecai tried to charge the genie but was immediately swatted aside with its enormous paw. Roland and Lilith charged it together, both firing their most powerful guns. The genies blocked the bullets with its enormous wings, and sent out a wave of fire that burned both of them.

They were beaten up and all badly hurt, but raiders didn't give up; they all charged the genie at once, firing their weapons together. The genie shielded itself from the fire with its arm. Maya used phase lock to pull the beast's arm away from its face. "Fire at its mouth!" yelled Roland, hoping to God that it would be a weak point. Everyone focused their fire at the genie's mouth as it wailed in pain. As it struggled to release itself from Maya's its body started to lose its purple glow. "The mouth is the weak point," yelled Lilith, "keep firing!" The genie finally broke free of Maya's vortex and stomped its foot, sending a shock wave that knocked the group down.

The genie whipped its tail at them, but this time the raiders saw it coming. They all vaulted over its stone tail and continued to fire at its now obvious weak points. The genie wailed in pain, then took to the air. It took a deep breath then shot an icy beam towards the raiders. They dived out of the way and sprinted away from the laser, jumping and ducking under the rubble to escape an icy death. Mordecai turned towards the genie and dived to the side right as he took a shot with an explosive round, causing a fire explosion to go off in the beast's mouth. The genie roared in frustration as Jack yelled, "C'mon genie, what are you doing?! Protect your God damned mouth!" It swooped down towards them, ready to crush the raiders. "Ready amigo!" Salvador yelled towards Brick as he and Axton bent over and cupped their hands. Brick nodded and let out a battle cry as he started to charge. He jumped onto Axton and Salvador's hands and they launched him into the air towards the genie, which was on a crash course towards them. Brick let loose a monster punch and knocked the monster out of the sky and into the side of the mountain. Angel watched in awe as the raiders did their all to stop the genie. "I don't believe it," she said to herself, "they're actually killing it!"

"And now it's time to do our part," Angel looked over and saw Zer0 standing up and walking towards her

"What do you mean?" she asked

"Its time for you to help me finish my contract" he answered, holding out his hand to her. Angel smiled and took it, it was time she got revenge on the worst dad in the world."

Roland and Axton both through their turrets onto the side of the genies head. Once the turrets deployed, they started to unload on the genie's head as it tried to swat the machines off its cheek. Lilith and Maya quickly followed up with a siren combo they made up on the fly. Maya phase locked Lilith and launched her towards the genie. Lilith phased through all of the monster's attempts to swat her out of the sky. When she got close enough to its mouth, she released a phase blast, causing the genie to reel back in pain. She fell out of the sky towards the ground, _didn't think that part through_. Roland ran out and caught her before she hit the ground. "Thanks," she said as she smiled up to him.

"Uh Lilith, now isn't really the time," Roland said as he looked at the recovering genie.

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"Jack, I've come back to claim your life," Zer0 yelled to Handsome Jack. Jack turned around and smiled at Zer0 with his newly deformed face. Angel soon caught up with Zer0, holding a pistol in one hand and an orb of energy in the other.

"God this is what I don't get about you villains," Jack laughed, "you know the hero's gonna win in the end and yet you INSIST on fighting on!"

"You're no hero Jack, just an asshole!" yelled Angel

Jack shook his head and said, "Tsk Tsk Angel, watch your language. It looks like I'm gonna have to teach you two some manners myself!" Jack drew an SMG and started to fire at Zer0, who spun his sword rapidly, blocking Jack's attack. Angel threw the energy orb at Jack, who jumped out of the way with surprising speed. "You know Zer0, I've been checking out your deception technology and you know what?" Jack's body flickered as suddenly two more of him appeared next to him. "I think I like it." The three Jacks charged towards Zer0 and Angel, who began to defend themselves. Zer0, swung his sword through one, causing it to flicker away. He then turned as the another Jack tried to hit him with the but of his gun. Zer0 ducked and sliced the gun in half, then turned and stabbed the fake Jack. Angel saw as three more Jacks quickly surrounded her. She smiled and thought, _Jack is more stupid then I thought_. She released an energy pulse that short circuited the fake Jack's and left the real one standing. "Smart Angel, but not good enough as always!" he yelled as he punched the siren in the jaw. He ran toward Angel but was immediately kicked away by Zer0. Jack got up and blocked Zer0's next attack with the bayonet of his gun. He pushed Zer0 backward with a surge of strength and the assassin stumbled backwards. Jack pointed his SMG and tried to fire, but his gun exploded in his hands. He got up and saw Angel holding out her hand, she had short-circuited his gun! Jack grinded his teeth, he had had just about enough of his 'daughter'.

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The genie slammed its paw into the ground, causing the earth to shake. It too had ad enough of these pests. It let out an ear-shattering roar and let out a pulse of purple energy. It gained its glow back and was ready to continue the fight. All the raiders stared in disbelief, all the fighting they had done and it had healed off all the damage, just like that! "It's un beatable!' yelled Maya, who was just about drained of all her energy.

Axton panted in exhaustion, "I hate to say it but I agree, I can't take much more of this."

"At least if we die, we'll go down fighting!" yelled Roland trying to rally everybody up, but it wasn't working. The genie could be hurt, but it could heal off any damage done like it was nothing. There was no stopping it. Suddenly a purple streak shot through the sky and struck the genie, knocking it over. As the genie recovered everyone looked towards the smoldering spot where the projectile had landed. Out from the smoke rose Luke, at full power ready to fight. "What are you all doing just standing there," he yelled, "get up and fight!" The genie tried to swipe at him but he teleported away and reappeared in the air in front of it. He let loose a volley of arrows, all landing right in the genie's mouth. The lion roared in frustration and swiped, but Luke was too strong. He caught the beast's paw and through it on the ground, then appeared with the raiders. This gave the group a new spirit as Salvador yelled, "TOGETHER!" The Crimson Raiders, including Luke, charged the genie ready to finish the fight. Gaige summoned Death Trap and jumped onto its shoulder. The robot flew her and Roland up close to the genie's face, where they started to unload. "Get 'em Death Trap," cheered Gaige as her robot shot lasers and powerful electric shocks towards the beast. Roland pulled out a minigun and started to open fire at the genie as it held it's hands up to protect itself. Luke ran up to Lilith and offered his hand. She smiled and took it, "I'm glad you're back Luke."

"Good to be back," he said as he carried her up to join the fight. The two landed on the genie's shoulders and started to wail on it from there. Salvador fired of rockets towards it, gleefully laughing as the monster started to crumble, overwhelmed by their power. Maya managed to give one final move before she fainted in exhaustion. She gathered all her power as her siren wings unfurled from her back and phase locked the WHOLE genie. The beast cried in pain as the Crimson Raiders killed it, all together.

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Jack and Zer0 fought hand to hand, blocking and punching each other. Jack threw a punch at Zer0, who grabbed his arm and twisted it, breaking the limb with a crack. Jack cried out in pain as Zer0 brought his elbow down on his head, and then followed with a swift knee to the chest. Jack stumbled back, but Zer0 wasn't done. He brought his fist around and caught the fascist on the side of his messed up face. Jack stumbled backwards in disbelief; he was losing. "I'm not going to die here, I still have the genie!" he screamed at Zer0 as he walked towards him to finish the job. Just as Zer0 raised his sword to kill Jack he heard a screech come from the genie. He, Jack, and Angel all looked over and saw the once great stone lion start to slowly crumble away. "It is over Jack, your genie is dying now, you have lost this fight!" yelled Zer0, bringing the point of his sword to Jack's throat.

Jack started to laugh maniacally, "You think this is over bandit? I came here with a back up plan!" Jack then turned to the dying genie and screamed to it, "Genie, grant me my second wish! Give me your power, so I can kill these FILTHY BANDITS!"

The genie roared as it crumbled and a purple laser hit Jack and lifted him into the air. "We have to stop him somehow!" yelled Lilith as wind started to whip up around them.

"I don't know how! We can't kill Jack if he gets the genie's power, if only there was a way to negate its effect,," said Roland

"Wait," exclaimed Luke, "the lamp is where it gets its power from, maybe if we destroy it we'll be able to destroy the genie's power too!"

Angel ran over and yelled, "You can't destroy it remember, you'll lose your memory as soon as you touch it!"

"That's why I have to do it, if Angel can use phase shift to keep my cybernetic parts on track, it should be enough to destroy it!" explained Luke

Angel shook her head, "That will overload your circuits and kill you for sure. Luke you life depends on those machines! Not to mention the resulting reaction will probably wipe all of our minds clean!"

Luke looked towards Lilith; this was truly the only way to keep her safe. "I have to, this is the only way" Luke started towards the lamp when he felt Lilith hug him from behind.

"You are the best friend I've ever had Luke, I'm going to miss you…"

Luke smiled at her and said, "I'm going to miss you too Lil, just try to remember me." With those final words he walked up to the alter and picked up the lamp. Angel focused her phase shift as the lamp kept emitting pulses, trying frantically to stop Luke from breaking it.

Jack saw what was going on below as he was charging and screamed, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING LUKE, I GIVE YOU LIFE AND THIS IS HOW YOU REPAY ME!" Luke said nothing to Jack, but kept squeezing the lamp in his hands as it started to crack. Zer0 saw this was going to be the end, so he decided to say his last words before his memory was wiped. He looked straight at Jack and yelled, "Mark my words Jack, memory or no memory if you live the last thing you will feel in your life is my blade through your stomach!" Jack screamed in protest, trying to stop Luke, but he was losing his power as the lamp continued to break. Salvador, Gaige, and Brick gave each other a solemn hug while Moxxi and Mordecai gave each other one last kiss before they forgot; an example that was soon followed by Maya and Axton. Zer0 and Angel hugged each other, promising that one day they would be together again. Lilith looked to Roland and smiled faintly, "well I guess this is it…"

"Yeah, it's been fun," Roland said awkwardly. Lilith pulled him into a kiss and said, "Promise me no matter what, we'll still love each other after this." Roland nodded and embraced her, never wanting to let go. Luke said to himself, "it's time to finish this." With those last words he crushed the lamp, causing a blinding white light to rush from the relic and engulf the whole planet.

Lilith woke up and found herself on a planet she did not recognize. Dazed and confused, she looked around to try to find where she was. She found a wet sheet of paper on the ground and picked it up to read it. "Welcome to Pandora," she said to herself, not realizing it was a greeting poster to the visitors of the Pandora prison. "I guess that's what this place is called." She walked down the barren landscape of this 'Pandora and came across a strange symbol, an upside down V with a circle around it that she strangely recognized.

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Seven years later…

"NOOOOOOO," screamed Jack as the warrior let go of its last breath, "this can't be happening, THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING!"

Zer0, Axton, Salvador, and Maya stood in disbelief; they had just destroyed the legendary warrior! "Holy badass- I think you killed it! Never hurts to make sure though, hit the button on the moon shot console!" exclaimed Lilith in shock, as she lay next to Jack in the protective shield of the vault key. The four vault hunters ran over to the command console, ready to finish the thing off. "Would you like the honor, Salvador? asked Axton.

Salvador nodded with glee and yelled triumphantly, "Adios puta, see you in hell!" He slammed the fire button and a huge mortar shot came down from Jack's moon base hand hammered the already down warrior. A bright light flashed and Jack's shield started to dissipate. Lilith, Axton, Salvador, Maya, and Zer0 all turned towards Jack, who was bent over, horrified that he had been defeated.

Jack stammered, "No no no… I can't die like this… not when I'm so close… and not at the hands of a FILTHY BANDIT! I could have saved this planet! I could have actually restored order! I wasn't supposed to die by the hands of a CHILD KILLING PSYCHOPA!" Zer0 cut off Jacks last word with a swift stab to the stomach. As Jacked coughed his last Zer0 leaned in and whispered in his ear, "The one thing I know, the one thing I remember, I swore to kill you."

Jack dropped to the ground dead, it was over. It was finally over. Brick walked over, helping Mordecai come and congratulate the four vault hunters, now the heroes of Pandora. Axton reached down to pick up the vault key but Lilith stopped him. "You don't want to touch this thing right now, trust me." She reached down to pick up the key as she said, "God, if I ever see this thing again it'll be too soon."

Right as her hand almost touched the key, a purple pulse shot out, stunning the group. Lilith held her head and for some reason a name popped up in her head, _Luke._ Suddenly a map, showing the locations of millions of vaults, opened out right in front of them. "Are those all vaults.." said Brick in disbelief.

Mordecai laughed, "you know what that means..."

"Yeah, heh," Lilith said with a smile, "ain't no rest for the wicked."

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Two weeks after the death of Jack and his warrior…

Lilith visited Rolands grave in Sanctuary on a cold night, much like the one in New Haven where she had thought they had first started dating. She leaned down and placed a flower on her hero's grave and stood back up. "Hey Roland," she said, trying not to cry, "I just thought I'd drop by and pay a visit today. You know everything's been so great ever since the vault hunters defeated Jack, you would have been so proud. I took the mantel as leader of the Crimson Raiders, if you don't mind. I just figured I would try to lead them in the direction I know you would have wanted…" Lilith couldn't hold herself together anymore; she broke down right on Roland's grave. "I'm sorry Roland, but I've been having these memories ever since I touched that vault key. I remember a time before this that I never thought happened and a time where we were the happy couple I always wished for. I recalled knowing Zer0, Maya, Angel, Salvador, and all the others before this somehow, and I don't know why. Please, I loved you Roland, you can't leave me with this. I'm sorry I couldn't save you, I…" She was cut off when a sheet of paper hit her on the side of the head. She looked at the piece of paper and saw it was a Hyperion advertisement for their New U stations set up across Pandora. Lilith suddenly knew what this could possibly mean and laughed. "Wow Roland, even from the dead you are the perfect strategist."

THE END

**A/N: I tried to end it on a lighter note, but the ending did get a little emotional. I hope you all keep checking back for any sequels or other stories coming up, and remember to leave me a review or favorite if you liked the story!**


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